


Ghost of Jupiter: Part 2, Bali

by juliesioux



Series: Ghost of Jupiter II: Bali [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, Established Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Kundalini, Olicity Roadtrip Bali, Olicity Summer of Love, Oral Sex, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romantic Soulmates, Sex, Smut, Soulmates, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-05-13 08:14:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 42,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5701345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juliesioux/pseuds/juliesioux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The adventure continues as Oliver and Felicity continue their journey to Bali.<br/>They have a moment in real time at an ancient site that further reveals the depth of their connection.<br/>What they discover opens their hearts to the possibility of forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity make a decision and start their journey to Bali where they will begin the next leg of their journey.

 

**Chapter One: Interlude**

_There was no end in sight_  
_to the journey they were on_  
_dancing between the Gods._

 

I

Their experience in the Mesa Verde had been life altering. Oliver was still coming to grips with everything he was learning about himself, about Felicity, their relationship and their place in the Universe. It was humbling, daunting, terrifying and so amazingly, perfectly them. He had some context for it but Felicity did not so the more he mulled it over in his mind, the idea of introducing her to a location as steeped in spiritual power as Bali maybe was a mistake on his part. He had expressed those concerns on the drive to the Denver Airport.

“Oliver, it will be fine,” she said reassuringly, “I think Bali is the perfect place for us to kick back, relax and process everything we just experienced.”  
“You’re sure?”  
“I’m sure.”  
“Ok,” he smiled.

After shipping their extra luggage and camping equipment to a storage locker in Ivy Town, they boarded a plane to the Denpasar Airport on Bali and onto a resort that Felicity had promised he would love. He wasn’t so sure, but the breathy way she described their suite, with its own pool and outdoor bedroom, made his blood run hot.

“I miss Manaba,” she said quietly, her voice almost lost in the wind of the open window.  
“I somehow think she is watching us, even now.”  
“You think so?”  
“Yeah, I think she is up with Coyote, dancing with between the stars.”

Felicity looked at him with amused curiousity in her eyes.  
“I never would have pegged you as such...a romantic.”  
Oliver cut her a look and she burst out laughing, “If you growl at me, I’ll…”  
“You’ll what?”  
“Make you stop the car.”  
Oliver cocked an eyebrow at her, “We’ll miss our flight.”  
“Then you better behave.”

The drive to Denver flew by as they laughed and joked but never really talking about the deeper issues that had been presented to them in the desert sky. They had made an unspoken agreement to keep conversation focused on future things, like which temples to visit, how long they wanted to stay in Bali, should they go to Phuket next? The world was literally at their feet for as long as they wanted so anything they wanted to do, they could.

The journey to Bali turned out to be a marathon and exhaustion was slowly overtaking them. By hour 30, Felicity was losing her battle with sleep and Oliver was fading. They needed to sleep but the excitement of going to an island that didn’t have prison camps run by secret military organizations was making Oliver extremely chatty.

Midway through the final leg of the flight, Felicity rolled her eyes at Oliver when he suggested they sign up for a guided hike.  
“Oliver, you know how I feel about hikes. You can go while I swim in the ocean.”  
“Come on, Felicity, this one will be different. Look, it’s only a 6 hour hike. 3 in, 3 out.”  
“No.”  
“There are waterfalls…”  
“Hmmmm, let me think...no.”  
“You mean all you want to do is lie on the beach?”  
“Well, it’s not all I want to do. This resort does have a spa.”

Oliver sighed in exasperation, “You know I can’t just sit around for a week.”  
“So go for runs! Go on the hike. Swim with me! You don’t need me for the hike. We will be exploring together but I am not going to be going on a 6 hour hike. Look, i am tired, you are tired, let’s just sleep for a while and talk about this when I’m not so tired and you aren’t so grumpy. Ok?”  
“Ok,” he agreed, “but one thing.”  
“What?”  
“I’m not grumpy.”  
Felicity laughed until he joined her.

Oliver fell into a dreamless sleep, huddled under a blanket, while Felicity angled herself away from him and into the corner where the seat and cabin met and settled herself in for a few hours rest. She usually marveled at how he could sleep anywhere but right at that moment she felt oddly resentful. She could not get comfortable no matter how hard she tried but eventually sleep overtook her as well.

As they crossed high above the ocean still hours away from landing on the tiny island, Oliver wound his arm around her and pulled her into his side so that she came to rest with her hand over his heart and her head on his chest. Until turbulence caught them as they napped cuddled up together as best they could in the airplane seats. They always migrated back into each other’s arms. Oliver joked that they were like magnets, always succumbing to the pull of the other.

Oliver woke up abruptly as the plane shook and jumped. Felicity slept on, undisturbed, but her hand dropped from his chest to just slightly below his beltline. There was no way for him move it without drawing attention to his crotch. Things got even more awkward when she stretched and moved her hand between his thighs. He tried to use his breathing to calm his body but he could feel her gently scratching the inside of his thigh and her breath on his skin and his body began to react. The muscles in his abdomen twitched as she continued to gently massage his inner thigh.

Thirty five hours moving from plane to plane is a bit too long for us to not burn off some of this energy, he thought as he gently kissed the top of her head, we are still so new to each other that not being able to be intimate for hours at a stretch was now becoming a problem.

“Hey,” he called to her quietly, “hey, time to wake up. We are almost there, I know how much you like landings.”

“Mmmmmm, wait, what? We are almost there?” she blinked up at him from the warm confines of the blanket and continued her exploration of his thigh.  
“Yup, we are supposed to go back to our upright positions and if you don’t move your hand...,” he smiled with a slight edge of warning in his voice.  
“My hand? Oh!” she laughed, “Right but oh my God, you are so warm,” she exclaimed, nuzzling her face into his chest, stopping for just a second to reach up to kiss his jawline.  
“Mmmmm,” he hummed, “maybe we should go back to our own seats...”

Laughing, Felicity sat up and smoothed her hair back. He watched her get ready for the plane’s descent and thought, even after the long flight and they were exhausted and jet lagged, she was laughing and making him feel loved and wanted. It was a gift like no other and he hoped he would always be worthy of both it and her.

The moment they touched down in Bali, Oliver felt the distinct pull of something powerful. He had encountered strange, magical things and people while on Lian Yu and in Russia so he was familiar with the way the earth under his feet hummed. But this, this was something different.

It was like the land and air vibrated at multiple frequencies. He let his vision relax just a moment and saw the world shift in colour and shape. He gave his head a slight shake to bring himself back to his current reality and made a note that he would have to be careful and that he would need to keep an eye on Felicity. They were experiencing some extraordinary events and they needed to keep sight of each other during them.

It was after midnight Bali time the next day, he thought. They had left Denver on Thursday, so it was either Friday or Saturday now and trying to figure it out was making his head hurt. They needed to get their car and drive the dark roads to a luxury hotel nestled on a mountain side. He really hoped there was time for coffee and food or the drive could end badly.

“I really hope we have time to eat before we do anything,” Felicity said, as though reading his mind, “I am starving.”

All he did was smile and take her hand, lightly stroked her palm with his thumb, and said, “I hope so, too, otherwise I will probably pass out.”  
Felicity smiled at him, “I’m glad we’re finally here.”  
“Me, too.”  
“Is it Friday or Saturday?”  
“I have no idea, I think Saturday but I am going to sleep for hours even if I don’t wake up until dinner time.”

While Felicity went in search of coffee and sandwiches, Oliver dealt with getting their luggage and finding the shuttle that would take them to the car rental location. It all seemed so common, so mundane and he loved every second of it. He wasn’t in anyone’s line of fire or patching up any wounds. He was alive, he was healthy and he was with a woman so brave she waded into the cosmic stream and linked her future to his own.

“So this hike,” Felicity asked as they were driving to the resort, “is it near any of the temples I want to visit?”  
“Maybe. Why?”  
“Because while you go on it, I could visit one of them. I wouldn’t mind spending the day at one or two of the temples.”  
“Is that safe?”  
“At the more popular sites, I’d be fine alone.”  
“I’d rather you didn’t roam around by yourself.”  
“Oliver...let’s talk about this tomorrow when we can see the ocean. Remember, this isn’t Starling,” she said softly as she gently rubbed his neck, “let’s just get to the resort and into bed.”

In the darkness of the car, Oliver smiled and leaned slightly back into her touch. He reminded himself that it was ok for them to not be together all the time and that she would be safe if she went on her own to visit a temple or two. The thing of it, when he was honest with himself, was that he didn’t want to not be with her. Even if they were just quietly drinking coffee, he had spent so long denying himself the pleasure of her company that being away from her for longer than five minutes was a special kind of torture.

He loved her. It was as simple as that.

 

II

_Somewhere deep below the crust of the earth, a river of molten fire grew in strength. It was an old river, deep and wide, it had carved a path through the mantle of stone and minerals that formed as the earth cooled and carried with it the seeds of creation. It was the first energy, the Shakti, and it shook the four sleeping giants, Agung, Batur, Batukao and Abang, awake._

_They had arrived and it was time to connect to the sacred fire._


	2. The Stream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity finally arrive in Bali in the dead of night. This is only their second month together since making the decision to leave Starling City, so they do what comes naturally to most couples. Although Felicity has her own ideas in mind and takes her cues from Oliver.
> 
> They love each other and this is where they express it.

**Chapter Two: The Stream**

 

_Weary and tender_   
_the roadmap of loss that separates them_   
_breathes in the fragrant air._

 

I

“Whoah,” Oliver said as they walked the candle lit path to their secluded bungalow suite, “this is fantastic.”  
“Isn’t it?” she breathed in awe, taking his hand in hers, “it smells amazing, too.”

There was a slight but steady ocean breeze blowing, cooling the air and infusing everything with the sweet scent of coconut and frangipani flowers, which grew everywhere on the island.

The loud crashing of waves on the beach below them grew the closer they got to their villa. The view must be outstanding, he thought, because they were right over the ocean with nothing but mountainside and jungle behind them. Their neighbours were over 200 metres away, so when the description said secluded and private, it really meant it.

“Oliver, come see this,” Felicity called from deep within their temporary home.  
What he really wanted to do was dive into the enormous king sized bed in the centre of the bedroom but he wandered into the bathroom and wondered, why is the pool inside the villa?

“Wait...that’s a _tub_?” he exclaimed.  
Felicity smacked him on the arm, “I know, right? It’s **HUGE**! And it’s one of those infinity ones that just keeps filling the tub with hot water!”  
Mock-rubbing his bicep, Oliver walked around it and surveyed its depths. “This thing could easily hold the entire team.”  
“Or just us and Diggle because Diggle is huge but the last thing I need to see is Diggle naked. The last thing you would want to see is Diggle naked, too, I bet.”

Oliver gaped at her and then laughed and laughed and laughed as she turned beet red.

“You know what I mean! Oh my God, Oliver!” she gasped through peel after peel of laughter, “You can never mention a word of this to him.”  
“Go get your things unpacked, we should think about going to bed soon.”

Oliver listened to Felicity as she laughed to herself and explored what would be their home for the next 10 days. He was glad she was in the other room so that she couldn’t see his somber look. He missed his brother in arms and knew the road back to friendship with Diggle was going to be a long and difficult one.

He sat down next to the tub and noticed the candles stationed around the room in strategic places. He looked up and examined the skylight and how the waterfall spout that poured a steady flow of water into the tub was positioned to allow the window to remain open and he got an idea.

“Hey hon, I’m going to shower real quick!” he called out.  
“Ok, I’m going to order breakfast for tomorrow morning. Want anything special?”  
“Bacon.”  
He heard her laugh from the other side of the door.

Five minutes later, he called out to her, “Hey, can you come here for a sec?”  
“Ooooh, do you need me to dry you off?”  
“Just get in here,” he laughed.  
“It is getting late and I am so tired, I think I am going to ski-” she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the bathroom.

The light was golden and alive. He had lit every candle in the room and turned off all the other lights so the effect was nothing short of dazzling. He had opened the windows so that the sound of the ocean could be heard in the distance and a faint ocean breeze caused the steam rising from the tub to shift and swirl in eddies in the air.

It was magical. He could tell by her expression that she was immediately entranced. She didn’t even notice that he was already in the bathtub waiting for her until he quietly said, “Come here.”

Without saying a word, she slipped out of her clothes and almost shyly approached the tub. He was stunned speechless by her. They had only been together for a little less than two months and were still discovering each other’s bodies in those wondrous and intimate ways, but seeing her in the nude now still felt very close to the first time he saw her without clothes in Nanda Parbat.

For the first month, he felt like a teenager when she would lightly stroke the inside of his arm, or when she would wind her arms around him in a long embrace. He felt giddy and butterflies would flutter in his stomach. There were times when his hands would shake and speech would become impossible and there would be times when he would find himself with awkward erections in very public places. She knew her effect on him and would smile up at him with her impossibly blue eyes while tracing the roadmap of their future on his soul.

He sometimes had to stop and remind himself that this was real. That after the torture he had put her through for months of continually pushing her away, almost losing her to Ray, to the virus, after his almost death and handing his life over to Ra’s and the League, he wasn’t sure what she would do. He had doubted that she would forgive him like his heart and soul so desperately wanted.

But she did and here she was, so achingly alive, gently easing herself into the hot bath he had prepared for them both. His breath caught in his throat, his chest expanded and he gripped the edges of the tub to keep himself from reaching for her and pulling her to him. Every muscle in his body was flexed and ready to claim her but he pushed back and waited. The way the light bounced off of her skin, how her eyes sparkled as she entered the water, the image of her that was being created would be one he would carry with him for a lifetime.

“Is...is the water fizzing?” she asked in wonder.  
“I added some of that bath stuff, those bomb things, they supplied and turned on the jets just enough to move the water around,” he explained in a hushed voice.  
“It smells heavenly. Like lavender and sandalwood.”  
“It smells like you.”

For a moment Felicity sat on the other side of the immense tub and appraised him, like she was seeing him for the first time after a long separation. With a tiny push off of the side of the tub she submerged herself completely and surfaced a foot in front of him. The water glittered and sparkled all around her and on her skin, as though it were alive. Without slowing down, she drifted gently into his embrace and laid her head on his shoulder.

He groaned inwardly and silently as she came to rest against him. He was losing the battle with his body. This romantic bath may not last that long, he thought, if she keeps rubbing against me like that.

“This tub is enormous. It has individual sitting areas for, like, 6 people!”  
“Felicity…”  
“Hmmmmm?”  
“Come on the hike with me.”  
“Nooooooooooooooooo,” she protested.  
“Come on,” he teased, “I’ll massage your legs again…”

In answer, he felt Felicity started to slowly explore the raised flesh on his back with slow, gentle caresses. She let the current in the water slowly buffet against her, rocking her body in a back and forth motion as her fingers followed the valleys and curves of the arrow brand, of the burn across his lower back and the whip marks across his shoulders. She had once whispered to him that she loved every part of him, including these marks of violence and pain and that she found beauty in them like she saw in him.

Oliver lowered his face so that his cheek was next to hers and just breathed her in, over and over. His hands were reflexively tightening on her back as she continued to explore his skin with her hands and he could feel the energy between them start to intensify. It started low down at the base of his spine and surged upwards and out, wrapping itself around her. It felt like a river of fiery energy coursing through his body. He felt her lips tenderly brush past his jaw as she pushed off his chest and turned herself around.

“Wash me?” she asked as she handed him the spa soap bar and loofah.

For a moment, he felt bereft as she floated away from him, but once he lathered up the loofah with the fragrant soap and felt her warm, supple body under his hands, the deep heat of arousal began to build within him anew. He felt his spine begin to crackle with energy and something else he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

He followed the slopes and curves of her body, pausing only momentarily to cup her breasts and gently rub her nipples between his fingers before charting a course down her belly, over her hips and thighs. Travelling back up her body, he moved his hands so that they blazed a trail up her inner thighs and over her core. He felt her body twitch in response to the gentle caress both of his hands gave her but he was relentless in keeping his hands moving over her body.

It was like his world had reduced to a single point and all that he could see was her. All he wanted was her and yet, for some unfathomable reason, he was purposefully holding back and waiting to see what she would do next. His body was taking on a life of its own, slowly drifting out of his control, but he remained patient in waiting although it was becoming almost unbearable to not act on his desire for her.

In one smooth, graceful motion, Felicity turned in such a way that she wound up behind him. She took over the bar of soap and loofah and slowly began to wash his back, taking extra care over the arrow branding before following the powerful set of his shoulders and curve of his chest. She had to push in close to him because her arms could only reach so far around his powerful chest but when she angled her hands low and brushed past his lower pelvis and down to his thighs, he tried not to weep at the exquisite tension it caused.

He almost howled in frustration as her hands studiously avoided coming into contact with his throbbing, hard erection. He tried to will her to touch him but she maneuvered past it with skill and grace, dragging him into a blank, mindless state. And still he continued to wait for her.

He felt how ragged her breathing was becoming as she rinsed the soap from his body. When their bodies came into contact, he could feel the electric energy that sparked between them. They were both fighting the desire to cross the small distance they had created, trying to make this moment last for as long as possible.

Finally, taking his hand, Felicity lead him out of the tub. There was no hiding his desire for her in the open air. He was naked before her, hungry for her mouth, her body, the taste of her…

Yet she still kept the pace slow by taking two large bath towels and wrapping him in one and her in the other, and then she used yet another one to slowly dry him off.

“Felicity…?” he managed to whisper as she knelt to dry his legs.

She looked up at him with searching eyes, and answered him by stroking the inside of his thighs. She leaned closer and kissed the sensitive skin on his hips and then slowly, but with tenderness, she took one of his balls into her mouth and before he could ask what she was doing, she _hummed_.

“Oh my God,” he gasped as he saw stars and his knees buckled. Oliver reached out and grabbed the wall to keep from falling down.

Felicity felt the effect that had on him so she stopped and took him by the hand again and lead him out into the bedroom. She had created her own surprise out there while he created his in the bathroom.

The lights were off but the moonlight was streaming in through the wall of windows and french doors that opened out onto their private courtyard. Everything was silver and shining but she outshone everything. She still had that celestial shine to her, the one she carried out of the desert like a film on her skin.

Without words, she lead him to the bed and made him sit down on it. He would have done so anyways as his legs were still shaking from the brief moment in the bathroom. His body was beginning to twitch in random places. Every movement they made, every time she came into contact with him, it was like a series of earthquakes rumbling through him. But he sat on the bed and waited for her.

Carefully, she straddled his lap. She still hadn’t made a move to touch him in any way, it was driving him perilously close to a primitive, raw place in his mind so he focused on where their bodies connected to keep him tethered to reality. Her skin was so smooth and warm from their bath, her hair was starting to dry and the waves he so loved were back and framing her face like a halo. He lightly ran his fingers through her hair and traced the shape of her face with his finger tips. He sometimes did this as she slept, just to remind himself that she was real and still with him.

She entwined their hands together, leaned in closer so that their noses gently touched, and nuzzled him with the barest of touches. He closed his eyes and breathed in deep, filling his lungs and attempted to calm his jangled nerves. She let go of his hands and he let them fall to his sides as he wasn’t sure he would be able to keep them from trembling and shaking. His desire for her had now entered a space of exquisite pain. He could feel the heat from her core and how wet she was as she rested her body on his legs.

Just when he thought he had his body under control, he felt the tip of her tongue tenderly outline the shape of his lips and her hands slide a condom down his hard member. That was all he could take as he finally pulled her to him, capturing her mouth and tongue with his own, and flipped her onto her back.

“Oli-” she gasped.

Whatever she was going to say was lost as Oliver claimed her lips and mouth in a passionate kiss. One that lasted until they were both breathless and she gripped his body with her legs around his waist and her arms around his shoulders.

Gently, he eased into her. Inch by inch he filled her and he watched her the entire time. Her eyes were tempests in the still room. He could see raw energy reflected in their dark blue depths. He could feel the deep breaths she was taking in an effort to control her response to his hard length entering her. With determination, she slowly raised her hips to meet his and then moved them in a slow, circular pattern that left him gasping.

He was not going to last long and by the feel of how she was beginning to pulse around him, that neither would she. He felt her trembling and the urgency with which she was holding him told the story: she was just as close to her release as he was to his. Her velvet heat that was wrapped around him felt like paradise and he stilled their movement to give their bodies a chance to enjoy the intensity of the experience.

She tenderly kissed the pulse point on his neck as he pulled slowly out of her and thrust back in and they both lost all resolve. Pinning her with his lower body, Oliver deliberately set a hard, fast rhythm because he could feel how quickly he was approaching the point of no return as the heat built low in his core. Within moments, he felt Felicity buck wildly under him and vaguely he heard her as she called his name.

“Oh God, Oliver,” she gasped in his ear, “I love you...don’t ...stop....”

Burying his face in her neck, he had no ability to answer her. He could feel the pressure in his pelvis uncoiling and he lost himself to the wave of pure ecstasy that swept over and through him. He pulsed and spasmed inside her as he came in a powerful rush.

“Remind me to make us wait like that again,” Felicity chuckled lazily.  
“Are you kidding? That was worse torture than anything I suffered on Lian Yu or at the hands of Amanda Waller. Possibly combined,” he muttered into her neck.

Felicity laughed quietly under his weight and gently kissed the pulse point on his neck, just below his ear. He shivered slightly when he felt the tip of her tongue swirl a small circle over it but it reminded him of something he didn’t have a chance to do in their slow build up in the tub.

With a serpentine ease, he moved down her body, pausing only briefly to kiss the tender spot between her breasts, the spot that made her twitch and shiver, and with the tip of his tongue he traced a fiery line down her abdomen to her warm and welcoming cleft.

He felt her shudder under his touch but she didn’t protest or try to make him stop. He kissed her hips before dipping down lower, using his fingers to open her to him, allowing room for his powerful tongue to trace circles around her tender clit. She gripped him by his hair as she lifted her hips to meet his mouth, silently urging him to use his tongue on her most sensitive part.

Backing off ever so slightly, he took a moment to breathe her in, to taste and feel her on his tongue. Oliver knew exhaustion would claim them both soon but something made him stop to savour this one moment, when they were both connected to the same point of energy between them.

He covered her entirely with his mouth, he alternated between sucking and licking her in a steady tempo until she let out a long, low moan and gasped his name. Yet, he refused to stop. He kept up the pounding rhythm he had set at the onset and pushed her through one orgasm and then headlong into the next. He loved these moments most of all, when he was able to show her how much, how deeply he loved her.

He felt wave after wave of her climaxing as her body shuddered and bucked. She gripped his hair and tried to get him to ease up on the intensity of what he was doing with his mouth and tongue but he refused to stop. He was familiar now with her body and what she sounded like when she was done and needed a break and he knew she wasn’t quite there yet.

“Oh God, Oliver,” she moaned deep in her throat, “please…”

He slowed down a fraction, taking the opportunity to plunge his tongue into her, feeling her shudder like an earthquake was running through the length of her body, before zigzagging his way back to her sensitive nub and circling it and sucking it in pulses until she finally pushed him away.

He kissed the insides of her thighs before making his way back up her body where he wrapped her in a tight embrace.

“I think we did things in reverse,” she murmured into his chest.  
“How so?”  
“We need a shower now.”  
“Yeah,” he laughed quietly, “yeah, we do.”  
“Plus we should blow out those candles.”  
“Yes, we should.”  
“I can’t walk yet.”  
“Me neither,” he sighed wistfully.  
“Remind me to make us wait like that again next time.”  
“I almost died, Felicity.”

Laughing she got out of bed, pulling him after her, “Come on. The water will still be hot because neither one of us turned it off.”  
“Remind me to thank the hotel for that tub.”

 

II

 

_Agung rumbled to life sending rivers of fiery life coursing through passageways carved out the sacred earth that had formed above him. He sent vibrations up and out causing the trees to shake and the ground to shift. He sent a cloud of dust and ash into the air, signalling his return to life._

_In the distance, Batur surged from deep within her, sending fresh, clear water in a tumultuous wave through the channels long since carved from the earth that had formed around her. The trees began their hum, a low and gentle pulse that was lost in the wind that constantly flowed over her slopes._

_In unison, Batur and Agung sent out their vibrations to each other in the hopes that the other would hear. They swept out over the land and found a way to enter the human space, pulling them towards each other. Their frequencies and vibrations became gravity, generated from where they lived outside of the pull of time and space._


	3. Vayus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a quiet chapter that peeks into the trauma of Oliver's PTSD and the open and frank conversations that follow when he acts out during his sleep rages. Felicity uses the power of her love to show him how forgiven he is after they happen.

**Chapter Three: Vayus**

_Prowling the edges_   
_of a life well lived_   
_she waits._

I

The gentle knocking at the door pulled them from the deep slumber they fell into after their second bath the night before. Felicity watched Oliver wrap a bathrobe around him and stumble to the front door of their villa.

She loved watching how he moved through or across rooms, how he was able to either dominate the space or prowl the edges in an effort to blend into his surroundings. There was rarely any middle ground when it came down to it and she never tired of watching him to see what his approach would be.

This time he took up space in the centre of the hallway that lead to the front door. His steps were strong and sure and his shoulders were square by the time he was halfway to the door. It was like he was trying to block access to the heart of their little villa and her. He was instinctively protective in moments of uncertainty and seeing as how this was a new space for them both, he was unconsciously on guard.

She closed her eyes for a moment but the smell of coffee and bacon was just too much to resist. Reaching blindly for her bathrobe, she forced herself out of the softest bed she had ever slept in and made her way out to the patio to join Oliver for breakfast.

“What time is it? It feels early.”  
“It is 8 am.”  
“8 am!?! It feels like it is later than that. I’m going to have to nap after lunch, I guess.”  
“Why?” he laughed.  
“Because it is 8 am and I am on vacation!”  
“Sit down and have some coffee. I think I ate your portion of bacon, though.”  
“You. Did. What?”

Laughing, Oliver leaned over the small table and gave her a quick kiss before heading off to investigate the pool and check out the beach below them. He looked rested and so painfully, eagerly alive.

“Let’s go to the beach,” she called out to him.  
“For how long?”  
“Until lunch and then we can go back after lunch and then come up here for dinner.”  
“Felicity…” he groaned.  
“This is day one, Oliver, just day one. I want one day where we do nothing together. Just one.”

He turned to look at her. She was standing in the doorway between patio and their bedroom. The sun was illuminating the space around her and the ocean breeze was ruffling her hair. She was already in her bikini but was wearing a long, loose and flowing pale blue cotton dress over top of it. She was stunning.

How could he say no?

“Ok, but just today and just for you,” he said as he crossed the warm stone patio, “which means you will owe me a favour.”  
She smiled up at him as he pulled her into a gentle embrace and then panic flashed over her.

“No. Oliver, I will not go on that damn hike!”  
Laughing, he said, “Come on, Smoak. Let’s get to the beach!”

The rest of the morning was spent in leisurely exploration of the shore, of swimming in the warm Indian Ocean, of lazy conversations and lingering touches. He had to admit, this wasn’t so bad. He enjoyed watching her as she slowly relaxed in the hot, Indonesian sun.

“Let’s go back up for lunch” he quietly said, “I’m getting hungry.”  
“Mmmmm...I wish we had ordered it to arrive down here. I love this beach.”  
“Come on, we can come back later.”

With a dramatic sigh, Felicity pushed herself to her feet, “ Ok, I’m getting hungry, too. Whatever you ordered should be waiting for us by the pool.”  
“This place thought of everything, didn’t they?”  
“Yes, I think they did. Except for wifi. I had no idea this place was so....1980’s”  
“But the tub…”

Laughing, she pulled Oliver to his feet and hand in hand they made their way up the long stone stairway to their private retreat. The lunch was waiting for them on the table by the pool.

“Oh my God, Oliver,” Felicity breathed, “you ordered champagne and strawberries for LUNCH!?!”  
“I guess so. I don’t remember much after you tortured me for an hour last night,” he grinned.  
“You open the champagne and I’ll check that container for whipped cream.”

After a lunch of coconut chicken salad, champagne and strawberries with whipped cream, Felicity found herself happily drowsy. She felt like taking that nap so she lazily sauntered over to the outdoor bedroom.

The bed within it was a king sized slice of heaven. She had just made it to the bed when a wave of exhaustion swept over her and was asleep before her head hit the pillows. Oliver, after placing their lunch dishes outside the front door of the villa, climbed into the bed next to her, covering them both with a light blanket. Sleep pulled him down almost immediately.

 

II

It was the vice like grip around her arm that pulled her from the depths of sleep. At first, she couldn’t figure out what was causing her so much pain. In her dream, she was still in the desert and sleeping with her arm pressed against a rock. Then she was back in the Foundry sparring with Diggle when he landed a blow that was just a little too hard. She reached to rub the area that was causing her so much pain and encountered something wrapped around her arm.

Opening her eyes slowly in the afternoon heat, Felicity realized that the pain wasn’t in her dreams. Oliver had a hold of her arm in such a tight grip, his knuckles were turning white. She hissed in pain and tried to pry his fingers off of her arm but he was far too strong and she couldn’t get even his pinkie finger to budge.

“Oliver,” she groaned, “Oliver, please, let me go.”  
Despite her quiet but insistent calls, he remained deeply asleep. He was muttering unintelligibly and gritting his teeth. Whatever was going on in his mind, it had him locked in deep and he was a long way from waking up.

Felicity looked around wildly, trying to find something that she could use in her defense. His grip was crushing her arm where he held it just above her elbow. Every time she moved, his grip tightened and his features twisted in hard, cruel lines. She had experienced his sleep violence a few times since they left Starling, she had even experienced his daytime PTSD fugues and was prepared in how to move him through it.

This was different. He wasn’t thrashing or yelling. Instead, he was incredibly still and focused in his sleep world but she had to get him to wake up. She had to get him to let go of her arm but she knew she couldn’t jar him awake. They had talked through the best way to wake him up if he was gripped in a nightmare and the best way was to let him wake up naturally. She would often carefully leave the bed and sit just out of arm’s reach. He had told her that seeing her helped to ground him from the flights of terror he was often lost in.

She was unable to move and the pain was becoming blinding. Tears had started to fall unnoticed down her cheeks because it hurt. In desperation, she leaned forward and gently kissed his hand and whispered, “Please, Oliver, I don’t know what to do to wake you up but you have to wake up.”

She laid her head on his chest, hoping that it would be making the bend in his arm uncomfortable enough to wake him up, and silently cried through the pain.

It was as though her tears and pain reached through the veil of sleep and pushed Oliver awake. With a start, he woke up and released his grip on her arm.

“What…? Was I having a nightmare?” he asked groggily.

Felicity didn’t answer, she couldn’t form words. The pain in her arm had created white points of light in her vision and nausea had caused her to be covered in a fine, cold sweat. Her arm wasn’t broken but her fingers felt stiff and dead and she was having issues moving them. Instinctively, she had sat up with her back to him and hunched over her arm to protect it.

“Felicity? What is it? Are you ok?” Oliver asked, feeling a sense of panic welling up from deep within him.

“It’s ok. I’m ok,” she whispered. She didn’t want him to hear the pain in her voice but she knew it was thick with tears.  
“What is it?” he asked quietly. Getting no response but seeing the shake of her shoulders, his hesitant panic flew into full alarm and he hurried around the bed to kneel in front of her. It was then that he saw her arm and the red hot imprint of where his fingers had gripped her so hard that he could still see the white lines and ridges where the blood flow had been cut.

He looked up into her eyes and saw the pain reflected in their depths. Without a word, he went and got some ice and put it in a small towel. Her arm was already swelling and it would definitely bruise. He needed to know what happened but he needed to know she was ok first.

“Here you go, tell me if it is too cold,” he said quietly, “I can get another towel if it is.”  
“No, it’s ok,” she said softly, “it feels good.”  
“Felicity, what...what happened?” he asked with guilt and horror mixing in his voice.  
“You...you were so still,” she said quietly as she wiped away her tears, “but you were gripping my arm so hard. So hard…”  
“Was I saying anything?”  
“Nothing I could understand.”  
“Felicity, I...I am so sorry.”  
“It’s ok, Oliver,” she said shakily as she got up, “I want to go get changed. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Felicity felt him watch her walk away. She didn’t blame him, but she was wrapped up in the pain in her arm. It was all she could feel, all that she could think about, her vision was clouded and darkened with the agony of returning feeling into the grooves his fingers had pressed into her flesh.

Her tears kept falling and she didn’t want him to see her cry, not right now. She knew it wasn’t his fault, that is was beyond his control, but he had hurt her and she needed time to process just what that meant.

After their experience in the desert, they had entered a bubble of their own creation. One filled with love and laughter, of trust and patience, of encouragement and respect. She was deeply, deeply in love with Oliver but right then, in that very moment, she was scared of him. And no matter what, she couldn’t show him that fear because she knew it would destroy him.

She gathered up some clothes, blindly and randomly, quickly entered the bathroom and quietly locked the door. It was quiet and cool and she retreated to the farthest corner to cry for him and for her. She just needed to get it all out before rejoining the day with him.

When her tears had subsided, she washed her face, blew her nose and got dressed. The bruise he had left on her arm was starting to show and she didn’t want him to see it just yet. They needed to talk about how to make sure this didn’t happen again and if it did, she needed to know how to wake him up in a more direct way.

Softly, she unlocked and opened the door. The shadows had grown longer in the villa and on the patio. She let her eyes adjust and looked for Oliver.

 

 

III

“Oliver?” she called quietly, “Where are you?”  
“Over here,” he softly answered.

It took her a moment to find him sitting next to the low stone wall at the end of patio. He was lost in the shadows of the ferns and palms trees, contemplating the waves below them. From his vantage point he had been watching the closed bathroom door.

He heard the soft click of the lock _(which pulled the air from his lungs and carved out a piece of his soul)_ and watched as she slowly crossed the space between them. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her nose was red from blowing. He noticed immediately that she was wearing a long sleeved, light cotton blouse and was keeping her injured arm close to her body.

“Hey,” she said quietly as she pulled him to his feet, “come sit with me.”  
Obediently, he followed her back to the outdoor bedroom. He hesitated, and a tremor ran through him, the closer they got to the bed.

“Felicity,” he started, “I never meant for that to happen…”  
“Oliver, I know but...we have to figure out how I can wake you up if you ever do something like that again. And,” she continued, “we need to talk about what you were dreaming about.”

Felicity had climbed up onto the bed and was reaching out her hand to him. This one simple act of forgiveness almost brought him to his knees but instead he smiled and took her hand and accepted the invitation. As gently as he could, he sat back against the pillows and gathered her into his arms. He was careful to avoid touching her left arm but he could feel the angry heat blazing up from the bruise he knew was there. Her puffy eyes told him all he needed to know about the pain he had caused her.

“I don’t know what I was dreaming about,” he began in a quiet voice, “I think it was something to do with Lian Yu.”  
“From which time? Before Hong Kong?”  
“After,” he mused, “I think. It was dark and I could smell the weird smell that the island had at low tide. Not exactly fishy. It had a salty smell to it, almost sweet.”  
“What do you remember feeling?”  
“I was angry. No, I was filled with a deep, almost brutal rage. The only time I felt that on the island was with Slade.”  
“So, you were possibly reliving a moment where Slade was present?”  
“I think so,” his eyes got a far away look to them as he spoke, “but everything was so hazy. I have never felt so much rage before...not even when Slade had you or the Count…”  
“Oliver, you need to go back to that place.”

He froze. There was no way he could do that, not after what happened that afternoon.

“No, I can’t, what if I hurt you again?”  
“You won’t,” she insisted, “I will sleep on the couch or out here if the weather is nice. That way you will be safe to dream what you need.”

Oliver paused and gazed down at the top of her head and got an idea.

“How about we go on a temple tour instead? Maybe spend some time at that one you really want to see, the one with the sacred spring.”  
“Why that instead?” she asked, trying to puzzle out what he was getting to.  
“I think I need to go to one of those places first. To centre myself, this island...it is bringing stuff up for me.”  
After a moment, Felicity agreed, “Ok, just so long as you don’t expect me to join you on a hike. Ever.”

Laughing quietly, Oliver felt an enormous wave of relief and love flow over him. He continued to be amazed by how much he loved her and how that love grew and deepened with every passing day.

“Now,” she continued, “when you have nightmares, I get out of bed slowly and sit just out of arm’s reach. You’ve never gotten out of bed but you can get...active...in your nightmares.”  
“I’ve never hurt you before though.”  
“I know,” her voice was so small, it broke his heart to hear her, “this one was different. Which means I have to do something different.”  
“I think...I think it would be ok to talk to me. What woke me up this time was your voice.”  
“Ok, so the next time it is different, I will talk to you. Calmly and gently.”  
“Felicity?”  
“Hmmmm?”  
“Let me see your arm.”

He felt her freeze. She had been slowly tracing the outline of the sharkbite on his torso, feeling the clean edges and valleys like she was trying memorize the texture of his skin. She did that often when they were cuddled up. Her hand would travel up his shirt and she would trace his wounds with the lightest of touches.

She sat up and pulled the sleeve of her blouse up to reveal an angry red and dark blue series of bruises that spanned her arm the width of his hand from just above her elbow to the middle of her bicep. He sucked in a breath and closed his eyes for a moment to try and ease the panic that was rising up through his chest. He could feel the ground slowly receding and was losing his grip on reality. How could he have done this…

“Oliver,” she whispered, “Oliver, it’s ok. I will heal. You have to forgive yourself. I don’t blame you for this, we will figure out where your dreams are taking you. Oliver, look at me.”

He opened his eyes and immediately fell headlong into the expansive blue of her eyes. She was looking deep into him, searching out that crack in his soul and trying to give that portion back to him. To let him know, once and for all, that she would always forgive and love him.

“My arm will heal. Let’s try and heal together. In the meantime, let’s go for a walk on the beach. The sun is getting low so dinner will be arriving soon,” she smiled.  
“Ok. let me grab a shirt,” he smiled back. On impulse he leaned forward and gently kissed her and was surprised with the heat and passion that she returned it.

He could feel a fast rising heat beginning to build in the base of his spine and quickly broke free from her lips and searching tongue.

“Come on,” he laughed breathlessly, “let’s go before we can’t.”  
Laughing, she got up and stretched. “Go get dressed and I’ll meet you down on the shore.”

He watched her walk away and down the stone stairs to the waiting shore below. Just two months into this new world and already she had shown him so many ways he could recreate himself to be the man he had no idea he actually wanted to be.

 

 

IV

_Far beneath the thin skin of the earth, the original song of creation hummed and sang out. It reverberated through the fiery rivers, it echoed off of the caverns of minerals and it pushed up, wildly, through the hard packed mountains that rose and fell above the molten core. Boulders tumbled and crashed against each other, dissolving into dusty liquid which would ignite in the sparks that flew from the lava stream._

_Agung and Batur joined their songs into a channel of harmonies which awakened Batakau, who rested far to the south. She shook the slumber from her bones and sent shockwaves throughout her which created a pounding rhythm that carried out across the land._

_As they rumbled and sang to each other, the three waited in their ancient place outside of time and space for the fourth member of their family to slowly rise to the surface of consciousness and fully re-awakened. The grace with which they had begun their new existence was also played out in the stars above their heads. The celestial pattern of the future of the two whose song they were creating was mirrored it their terrestrial creation song._


	4. Tanmatras

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity settle into their vacation villa in Bali and begin to open up to each other about their experience in the desert.  
> They start a conversation that will take place over the course of their time on the island as they begin to discover the power of the earth beneath their feet.
> 
> They become aware of the forces that are pushing them towards a deeper connection in the here and now.

Tanmatras

_With no time to waste_   
_he traces the path of time_   
_in the gentle beats of her heart._

 

I

The walk on the beach was a quiet one. They spent time sitting on a rocky outcrop that jutted out into the ocean. The sky was a clear, turquoise blue that met the horizon in a seamless blue line. They watched seabirds circle and dive into the kelp beds and herons sail gracefully over the shore in search of dinner. Behind them, hidden in the trees, were songbirds and parrots. The cacophony of bird song was deafening even as the surf pounded the shore.

She knew Bali was going to be beautiful but this was almost ridiculous. Their resort was spectacular, almost luxurious to the extreme minus the wifi issue, they provided for every one of their needs and left them alone when they signalled they wanted seclusion and privacy. The level of intimacy that was being created in such a small space may have been what triggered Oliver’s earlier nightmare, Felicity thought, maybe it was time to venture outdoors.

She had called to the main office and asked them to deliver outdoor lanterns for candles and to attach the mosquito netting around the outdoor bedroom while they were out on their walk. They had a list of amenities that rivaled Ikea and she intended to make use of as many as she could while they were there.

Thank God they have house phones on the beach, she thought later on as she sat watching the sunset from the end of the patio, it almost is too easy to be here when all I have to do is pick up the phone and ask for it.

These simple, mundane activities gave her such joy. Planning dinners, going for walks, and exploring the world with him was her version of heaven. If they never went back to Starling, she would be ok with that. They could manage anywhere in the world so long as they had each other and there was wifi.

Wifi, she thought, I need to find someplace that has wifi! I am apparently about to be a CEO, so I might need to work eventually and keep an eye on the team back in Starling.

She felt guilty about keeping that particular secret from Oliver but Thea was right in suggesting that maybe she should wait for a while before telling him. She helped when she could with locating specific information for them but she was loath to do so at the expense of keeping secrets from him.

Soon, she thought, soon I will tell him and maybe it will help bridge the distance between him and Diggle if they start working together. Even if it is via wifi.

“Dinner is here!” Oliver called out to her.  
“Did you order burgers? I would love a Big Belly Burger right about now,” she sighed.  
“Um, no. I ordered something even better,” he chuckled as he wheeled the room service tray onto the patio, “Come on over and I’ll show you.”

Eying him with curiousity, she walked over to him. Once she was close, he pulled up the silver lid and revealed the most amazing fondue display she had ever seen. There was chocolate in one pot and three different cheese pots. Strawberries, kiwi, coconut, pineapple, bread, apples, and a variety of meats all at the ready.

She pushed past Oliver and sat down at the poolside table, rubbing her hands together with unrestrained glee.

“Where to begin…,” she said out loud, “where to begin…”  
Oliver laughed and sat down, “I am going to need to go for a long run tomorrow morning.”  
“I am going to sleep for a year after I eat this spread.”

Slowly savoring a piece of fresh coconut coated in rich, dark chocolate, Felicity looked at Oliver and slyly smiled, “You know, we could go for a dip in our pool as an evening treat.”  
“You seem a little mischievous tonight, Ms Smoak.”

All she did was smile at him and slowly ate her coconut morsel. She was feeling more relaxed and happy. Her arm was still tender but it no longer throbbed with that deep, bone splitting ache.

“Let’s clean up. I am in the mood to just relax tonight. Let’s watch The Princess Bride!”

Oliver, to his great credit, managed to keep his face neutral while inwardly he was groaning in helpless agony. Not again, he thought, I can only take so much of that movie…

“Sound good?”  
“Sure, hon, sounds good.”  
“Liar.”  
“What gave me away?”  
“You looked like you were thinking maybe another sword fight with Ra’s was a good idea.”  
“How about Die Hard?”  
“...how about Raider of the Lost Ark?”  
“That one, I can do.”

The rest of the evening was spent cuddled up on the couch watching Harrison Ford movies and laughter. She felt so comfortable and peaceful with him and she could feel how everyday together was peeling away layers of armour from Oliver.

“Let’s go in the pool,” she suggested after the end of The Empire Strikes Back, “it is still really warm outside and the pool will be the perfect temperature.”  
“Hmmmm...ok. Let me phone in our breakfast order and I’ll be right out.”  
“Perfect! When you come out, turn out the lights in here. That way we will be able to see the sky.”

And with that, she went out to the pool and dipped in her toes to discover she was right, the pool was the perfect temperature. While Oliver was navigating the room service ordering, she carefully lit the candles in the lanterns and made sure the mosquito netting was down and drawn around the bed. She had plans for it later on and didn’t want to be dealing with netting.

Looking around, she was more than satisfied with the effect she had created. The lanterns created a soft, white flickering light that glittered across the water of the pool. The night sky was clear and moonless, so the sky was inky black and filled with stars. She looked up and found both Oliver and herself in the sky, revolving around each other in their infinite dance.

We need to talk about that, she thought, it is so big and so powerful but we can’t ignore it.

“Whoah,” he whistled, “you sure know how to create ambiance, Felicity.”  
“You didn’t do so bad last night.”  
“True,” he agreed and then laughed when he saw the look she gave him.  
“Let’s get in the pool,” she said quietly.  
“Naked?”  
“Naked.”

Felicity had already removed her bikini from earlier and was naked underneath her cotton blouse and skirt. With a few simple moves, her clothes were in a puddle by her feet. Oliver removed his shirt and shorts in almost record time.

She knew the effect her body had on him when she was bathed with the kind of soft light that now lit the patio. She could see his eyes darken and how the rhythm of his breathing changed. It was like he grew more expansive, his already powerful chest became larger, his hands would twitch and flex and then his expression would soften into something that made her chest hitch. He looked at her like she was the only woman on earth and he was there to worship her.

The pool could come later, she thought as she reached for him and beckoned him to her, we will need it then.

She watched him cross to her and happily melted into his embrace. She looked up at him and could think of nothing else she would rather do than stare into his cerulean blue eyes. He could say more with a glance than anyone she had ever known.

“Come with me,” she murmured and took him by the hand and lead him to the outdoor bedroom.  
“What have you done here?” he asked incredulously.  
“Isn’t it gorgeous?”

He had to agree, it was. The mosquito netting was fluttering in the cool ocean breeze and the tiny white lights that were strung on the inside of the room structure created a starlight effect that reminded him of their night in the cosmic sky.

Even after the pain he had caused her, she was continuing to find ways to demonstrate to him it was all forgotten and forgiven. Felicity knew he was still growing comfortable in the world she was showing him but she had fallen in love with him a long time ago and was rejoicing in showing him just what that meant.

“This bed is incredible. I think it is actually better than the one inside,” he remarked as he settled back into the oversized pillows.  
“This is paradise,” she sighed as she cuddled up to him and laid her head on his chest.  
“I love you, Felicity,” he murmured as he kissed the top of her head.  
“I love you, too.”

Oliver turned over so that he was able to look down at her. She loved it when he did that, when he encircled her with his body, she felt safe, protected and loved. He started running his fingertips lightly over her the contours of her jaw, running his thumb over her lips, and then smoothed her hair away from her face.

Her body warmed under his touch. Her body needed him, it was like a hunger that was burning through her. Whenever he touched her, she wanted him. Immediately and ferociously. She felt his cock twitch against her leg and knew he was entering that same space.

Lightly, she scratched up the back of his arm and down his back. She loved the feel of his skin, his heavy muscles and scars. She had memorized every ridge of the damage done to him so that in the quiet moments, when she would lay her head over his heart, she could tell him that she loved him as he was, that his scars were a testament to the endless well of strength he had within him.

He was more than just a survivor, she thought as Oliver traced the slope of her neck and ran his hand over her shoulder and down across her body, he was a warrior, a leader and a hero. Being a survivor kept him alive, yes, but his determination to live his life on his own terms made him more than just a survivor or soldier in an unnamed war.

She felt the ache of her bruise as he delicately traced its outline. Pulling his head down until his forehead was resting against her, she whispered, “The bruise will fade. We will get past this, Oliver, I already have but you just need to trust me when I tell you that, ok?”

“Ok,” he whispered as he continued his exploration of her electric skin, “You are so beautiful, Felicity.”

His hand moved over her chest and her breath hitched as his thumb grazed one of her nipples. She felt it pucker and closed her eyes as a jolt of exquisite pleasure shot through her. He was so deliberate in the way he explored her but she was never completely ready for how gently he would run his fingers so lightly over the length of her body. It was like they were dancing across her skin, edging her closer and closer to a surreal and blank space in her mind where her body was beyond her control.

When she felt the calloused edges of his fingers trace the curve of her hip, she pulled him into a deep, languid kiss. As she felt his tongue gently slide into her mouth, he slid his hand between her legs and ran his fingers over her hot, wet length. She moaned into the kiss and pulled him closer to her. All she wanted was his body covering hers, his hard length buried deep in her body but he kept his hand moving steady over her, blazing new trails of nerve shattering fire.

“Oliver…” she gasped when he slid two fingers into her entrance and slowly pulsed them open and closed in a steady rhythm. She had never felt anything like it and her hips began to move of their own accord. His thumb was circling her sensitive clit, pushing her closer and closer to her release.

Just as he sensed she was about to cross the point of no return, he withdrew his fingers from her body, dragged them across her body, leaving a cool, wet trail across her hips and down her inner thighs.

“Is this payback?” she groaned in mock despair.  
“Now would I do that?” he chuckled. Before she could answer, he slid his fingers back over her sensitive clit and he captured her mouth again in a searing kiss. It was the kind of kiss that stopped her mind and all she could do was surrender to it.

“Come here,” he whispered and pulled her on top of him so that she had to straddle his hips. With his hands tangled in her hair, he drew her down into a slow, searching kiss. Their tongues danced around each other as they clung to one another. Oliver held her to him as she moved her hips, rubbing her wet length along his erect cock.

“Felicity…,” he moaned into her neck, “God...you feel so good…”

She didn’t trust herself to speak, so instead she sat up, reached between their bodies and gently took hold of him, causing him to let out a long, low moan, and slowly lowered her body down his hard member. Keeping him buried deep inside her, she reached back to use his legs to steady herself, and began to almost tranquilly rotate her hips in a circular pattern.

The intensity of the coiled tension this simple movement created left them both gasping within a matter of moments. Oliver’s hands were still exploring every plane of her body but when she changed the motion of her hips to a faster back and forth movement, just shy of thrusting up and down his thick shaft, his hands stilled. She could feel him beginning to throb deep inside her. She let her head fall back and closed her eyes and focused on the delicious pressure that was starting to build in the base of her spine.

“Oh...God…,” she gasped, “Oliver…”  
He didn’t answer, instead he used his thumb to apply pressure to her clit by slowly circling it in time with the motions of her hips. She let out a primal moan and felt the wave that would carry her to her release building in strength. His hands were so large, that while he was doing that, he was able to reach up her body and cup her breasts and tease her nipples until they were so hard they hurt.

Their control gave way at roughly the same time when she fell forward and began to thrust against him. Holding her in a tight embrace, Oliver met her thrust for thrust, and chased her towards an ecstasy filled end.

Felicity tightened around him as she ground down on his throbbing cock. As wave after wave of pleasure rolled over her, Oliver gripped her hips and maintained their rhythm.

“Oh...Felicity…,” he moaned.  
“Don’t stop,” she panted, “Please…”

She could feel him beginning to swell inside her as she pulsed around him. He was gasping and panting her name over and over, like a mantra, as she felt that familiar and delicate flex begin to fold her body inwards yet again. Burying her head in his neck, she rode out yet another powerful orgasm as he cried out and joined her on that final surge.

Gently, Felicity moved so that Oliver’s still swollen cock slipped out of her. She shivered as her sensitive nerve endings still rhythmically pulsed with pleasure fueled energy. Oliver had gone unnaturally still but his breathing was deep and gradually evening out.

“I guess it doesn’t matter if we wait, I still end up almost dying,” he quietly sighed.  
“I think I have to agree,” she laughed in agreement.  
“Why did I wait so long for this?”  
Playfully, Felicity smacked his arm, “Because you were too busy being Mr. Manpain.”  
“ _Mr. Manpain_ ,” Oliver laughed, “I should get that tattooed on my arm to remind me never to be that again.”  
“Let’s go in the pool, Mr. Manpain,” she laughed.

Felicity dove into the deeper end of the pool as Oliver carefully waded in. His legs were a bit shaky after what Felicity had put him through and he was too tall to dive in.

“This pool is almost as big as the tub,” he joked dryly.  
Felicity laughed as she swam to meet him in the centre of it, “It doesn’t have the rain spout or jets though.”  
“We could always go inside…”  
“You REALLY like that tub.”  
“It has heated jets AND a skylight rain shower thingy!”

Laughing at him, she encircled his neck with her arms and pulled him into a long, slow kiss. She teased his lips open with her tongue and felt him smile as he opened to her gentle probing.

He ran his hands down her body and gripped her hips and ass with his large hands. She loved how strong he was but how careful and tender he was with her even when his desire threatened to overwhelm him.

Breathless, he broke away from the kiss and nuzzled her neck, tickling her with his stubble. She wanted him again but knew he wasn’t ready just yet. The feel of his lips on her neck and the way his hands moved over her body overwhelmed her with longing for him and only him.

It was at that moment that she felt his hand slip between her legs. Instinctively, she opened them to allow him just a little more room to maneuver. He wasted no time in slipping his fingers inside her and curling them forward in a gentle but steady pulse.

She gasped and lowered her head to his shoulder. Her body was still so sensitive that she found herself quickly tumbling towards another climax. She hooked one leg around him and let herself float as she lost herself to the way his fingers felt inside her, to the way the heel of his palm ground rhythmically against her electrified clit.

Shuddering, she cried out as she came with force against him. He continued to pulse inside her and pressed against her just enough so that as she rode out one orgasm, he moved her headlong into another one. This time, her head fell back as she cried out his name. She was lost in that special blank place in her mind where nothing existed but him and the way he loved her.

He held her as she trembled against him. She loved these moments, when he just let her come back to herself in the safety of his arms. He cradled her and traced the constellations on her skin sending shockwaves through her body with his finger tips.

“I don’t think I can walk out of here,” she breathed into his neck.  
Laughing, Oliver scooped her up and carried her out of the pool and gently set her down on one of the loungers.

The night was warm but the breeze cooled them off quickly. Oliver wrapped her in a towel and dried her off.

“Oliver?”  
“Hmmmm?” he was focused on drying her off and got distracted by the bruise on her arm.  
Reaching to cup his chin, she made him look her in the eye. “I love you. I am in love with you and all of the you that brings to this relationship. I love all of who you are and that includes the rage filled version in the dreams you have at night, in the afternoon and the morning.”  
“You are, without a doubt, the best person I know,” he said with more heartfelt tenderness and love than she had ever heard in his voice before.

Standing up and wrapping a towel around his waist he disappeared inside their villa, reappearing moments later with a blanket and pillow. Taking her hand, he pulled her to her feet and moved them over to the larger lounger beside the pool. Dropping his towel, he took hers from her and pulled her down next to him.

“Let’s watch the stars for a bit,” he said as he wrapped them both in the blanket.  
“Naked star gazing? Why, Oliver Queen…,” she teased.  
“Just watch the sky, Smoak,” he laughed.

Settling down next to him, she kissed his chest and turned to look up at the glittering sky. It was so deep and black, so full of cold fiery life, everywhere she looked had graceful movement and energy.

“So, what Manaba said to us…,” she began, “we haven’t really talked about that yet.”  
“I’ve been thinking about it. A lot. I don’t know if I have it all figured out yet. Even though it seems straightforward enough.”  
“We are starstuff in the most direct and beautiful way,” she mused.  
“According to Manaba, those stars are us in some ancient story.”  
“Oliver...how do you feel about the idea of soul mates?”  
“I never gave it much thought before. I always thought it was...one of those romance novel kind of things,” he chuckled, “I never gave it any real consideration.”  
“And now?”  
“When I think about it in a more expansive way,” he continued thoughtfully, pulling her closer to him, “it is like once I opened myself, my mind, heart and soul, to being with you and exploring this life together, something clicked into place.”  
“It was like a strong wind blew through and I could hear your heart’s song,” she whispered.  
“Exactly. I didn’t know how much I missed your’s until it was just...there.”

Felicity could feel the heat building in her blood again. She was exhausted from the many times they had made love already today but she wanted him again in the most powerful, soul consuming way. It felt...different.

Ever since they landed in Bali she had felt a heat in her blood and it was like nothing she had ever felt before. She sensed that Oliver felt the same thing or something very similar. Maybe it was time to find out.

“There is something about this place...I can’t really describe it properly but Bali has a vibration,” she said carefully.

Oliver, who had been slowly tracing circles on the inside of her wrist and palm, slowed a fraction. “What do you mean?”

“It’s like when we first set down here, I could feel something vibrating up through my feet. And now…,” she trailed off.  
“Now what?”  
“It feels like fire is uncoiling in my lower body and getting set to race through my veins. I feel a heat in my body that I have never felt before. I feel like an earthquake is running through me,” she said quietly, “What about you? Does this place...affect you?”

Oliver remained silent for a few moments. It did but not quite how it was affecting her. The end result seemed to be the same, he thought, I want her all the time. Since we set foot on this island all I have wanted to do is be with her, touching her, anything. The impulse is never ending but my body just can’t keep up.

“It does but I don’t have the fire in my belly like you do. For me...it is like everything has different vibrations and frequencies and I can hear beyond this world. It’s…,” he paused, “it’s like when we were in the desert and Manaba had us in her home, when we could hear Coyote howling...I could hear what she was saying when we got back to the tent.”

Felicity sat up and looked at him in surprise, “You could HEAR Coyote?!? What was she saying???”  
Oliver laughed, “She wanted me to join her in the canyon to hunt.”  
“Wow...that is...I mean…”  
“Are you speechless???”

Felicity smacked his arm and laid back down beside him.

“But here,” he continued, “I don’t know. It’s like something is calling me and there is a vibration in my body.”

Felicity gently traced the scar in his chest that came from Ra’s Al Ghul’s blade that cold, lonely night on top of the mountain in Nanda Parbat. His skin was slowly warming under her hands. Instinctively, she leaned in and kissed the centre of the healed wound. Tatsu told her that his last thought was of her before the fall and that still haunted her.

“When you touch me,” he said softly, “it is like my entire body starts to vibrate. Felicity, it feels like I am being consumed by fire when you touch me and it is all I want.”

She slid her hand down his body and gently cupped his hardening cock and heard him draw in a deep, shuddering breath.

“I think this place is pushing us towards something…,” she murmured as she slowly caressed the soft skin below his belly button, “A deeper connection to each other in the here and now.”

“This trip might kill me,” he sighed.  
“We don’t have to,” she softly laughed, “We can wait…”  
“Oh God,” he groaned, “No, no waiting.”

Felicity dragged her nails lightly across his tender skin and felt the coiling in his pelvis begin. He grew harder with each pass and his hands had stilled as he breathed through each caress. She knew the struggle going on inside him, she could feel each tremor under her fingertips.

“Sometimes,” she whispered in his ear, “it is good to just go for it.”

Oliver growled into her neck and lifted her over his body. All he could feel were the bone deep tremors that vibrated out from her centre and it was the heat inside her that he craved.

That night, as she moved in a serpentine, sinuous pattern against him, he watched galaxies and swaths of stars form a halo around her head. Her eyes flashed with the cold fire of faraway suns as she pulsed with a heat and intensity that pulled him into ecstasy with her and they tumbled towards and crashed against each other.

“Felicity,” he murmured, “remind me to order energy shakes for lunch.”  
“And strawberries.”  
“Come on, let’s go to bed.”  
“I don’t know if I can walk,” she said doubtfully.  
Oliver laughed and carried her back to the outdoor bedroom. Sleep came quickly as they wrapped themselves in the soft duvet and settled into the enormous bed.

II

_The winds blew in from the east through the dense jungle, over the mountains and across the sacred lake. The force of the air rushed through the spaces in the earth and whistled a holy song up through the throat of Abang._

_With a gentle warbling tune, He joined his brother and sisters in their slow, relentless return to life. The heated air rising from Abung joined the cooling breeze that flowed from Batur, the divine source of fresh water and life for the island and the gentle shaking of the trees on Batukao._

_From deep within the shifting bones of the earth, air rushed through the empty veins in his body creating harmonies and rhythms that filled the wind and blessed the land. The earth’s song rang out from the hollow throat that once belched fire and molten rock._

_The four siblings joined together through the connected plates and shifting air and shared all that they knew with one another. The two strangers on the island had awoken them by bringing with them the howl of the universe. They had awakened the Kundalini within themselves but had no idea how to control it before it would consume them both. Time was running out, the four knew they had to act and soon._


	5. Indriyas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity travel to a sacred temple in the centre of Bali in the morning of their second day on the island. They encounter the first of many mystical energies and people while in the pools of the temple but the visit to the temple is just the beginning. It is what they carry home with them that will become important in the following chapters.
> 
> Yeah, this is table setting but it does explain the origins of a certain shirt...

**Chapter Five: Indriyas**

_Coated with cosmic dust_   
_new galaxies form in her hand_   
_she pulses with life._

 

I

The next morning, Felicity awoke to an empty bed as Oliver had made good on his promise to go for a run. Before he left a robe on the bed for her, a thermos of coffee on the table for her and a bowl of strawberries and yogurt for her in the fridge. She was grateful for the coffee and drank it with an almost reverential joy before heading to the shower.

She had just slipped out of her robe in the bathroom, Oliver returned from his run. It was 7 am when he ventured out but the sun was already hot and the air was thick with humidity. After ten steps, he was covered in sweat and beginning to regret his choices but he needed to burn off some restless energy. Thirty minutes in the building Balinese heat was about all he could take before turning around and heading back to the villa.

It was either go for a run or wake Felicity up and repeat what exhausted us enough to sleep last night, he thought. We need to get out of the villa and explore. Do something to burn our energy off before we wear ourselves out.

“Hey,” he called, “Where are you?”  
“I’m about to head into the shower!” she called back.

I could wait my turn or conserve water, he contemplated. I’ll wait or we will never make it out of here.

While he waited, he busied himself with having breakfast and packing up energy shakes and bottles of water for later in the day. He was still marvelling at being able to plan for such simple things. The joy it brought him to just contemplate a menu was almost more than his heart could contain.

He was discovering that he loved to take care of her. Not that she couldn’t take care of herself, but looking after simple things like dinner and packing lunches was something he could do and more than that, it was something he wanted to do. He loved her and was just beginning to discover what that actually mean in actions and practice.

“So where are we going today?” she said as she towel dried her hair, “Are you going to do that hike?”

“Nope, today we go together to Tirta Empul, that temple with the springs at the base of that mountain, Batur, that you wanted to go see,” he said as he packed their water and lunches into the small cooler the had bought at the airport.

Felicity stood and stared at Oliver. How had he remembered she wanted to see that temple? she wondered, I mentioned it weeks ago!

“Oliver,” she said softly, “you remembered?”  
“Yup,” he said, turning around to look at her, “you were entranced by the description, so I committed it to memory.”  
“All because I was fascinated by the description?”  
“Felicity, I want you to be happy, no matter where we are,” he said softly, reaching out to her.

Taking his hand in hers, Felicity could only smile as she looked into his eyes.  
“What wonders will you show me that I have forgotten I mentioned?”  
“More than we can count by using the stars in the night sky,” he murmured into her lips as she drew him down into a kiss so tender and full of love that it left him breathless.

“We’d better get a move on or else we might never make it out of here,” he murmured when they both came up for air.  
“Right,” she reluctantly agreed, “we need to make our way into the centre of the island.”  
“Let’s go,” Oliver said, taking her small hand in his large one.

The drive wasn’t an especially long one but navigating the sometimes narrow, motorbike filled roads pushed Oliver’s patience to its limit. He unconsciously growled under his breath every few minutes and it was only when Felicity started to laugh at him that he became aware of how firmly he was gripping the steering wheel.

“At least these roads are paved and not gravel tracks like in Colorado,” Felicity helpfully volunteered as they narrowly missed sideswiping a group of German tourists on scooters.

“This island is so...populated but where we are staying, it feels like it is just you and me,” Oliver said as he slowly turned into the parking lot of the temple.  
“I know. I don’t mind seeing other people during the day,” she said quietly, “but at night, I like that it is just you and I.”

Oliver turned to look at her as undid her seatbelt and smoothed back her hair. Even without makeup and her hair loose and in waves that framed her face, she outshone all the women on the island. He had almost lost her to his own inner demons, but looking at her now in the hot Balinese morning sun, he promised himself to never make those mistakes again.

“Come on, the sun is going to set the air on fire in a few hours, so we best make our way up to the temple,” he said as he grabbed the knapsack from the backseat, “I think this island has two temperatures: hot and **ON FIRE**.”

Felicity laughed as they walked up the short set of stairs to the entrance booth and thought, he wasn’t wrong. She already had a line of sweat running down her back and she could feel her scalp breaking out in film of sweat as well. At least there was a cooling breeze coming down the mountainside that made the giant palm trees gently tremble and brought with it the sweet, floral scent of the jungle.

Oliver watched Felicity as she walked down a less beaten path towards the lesser visited, smaller temples that dotted the mountain’s sacred site. She had wanted to come here to bathe in the sacred waters and to experience the site in a spiritual way but not a tourist way. So he knew she was making her way to the sacred bath in an appropriate way for an outsider.

She had explained on the marathon plane journey from the US to Bali that one shouldn’t just rush to the baths, that they needed to explore the temple grounds and work their way inward by following the circular pathways. You were supposed to find your offering to the Goddess Dewi Danu, whose sacred waters supplied the pools, and leave that offering in the stone bowls above the pool’s spouts.

Oliver listened to every word, even though he had closed his eyes in sheer physical exhaustion partway through, and committed everything she said to memory. As they made their way through the temple complex, he ran through all she said that night so he could be ready for whatever the day was going to throw at them.

The sun was hotter than anything he had ever experienced, so he stuck to the shaded parts of the path just a few steps behind her. He knew they were safe but still, old habits die hard. He was slowly growing accustomed to letting her slip from his sight but it still made him uncomfortable and nervous.

“Oliver,” she called quietly, “come see this.”

Walking softly towards her, he cast his glance towards where she was looking. She had found an overgrown entrance to a small, forgotten temple space. At first, he was certain she was going to enter it but all she did was stand and stare into its depths as though hypnotized.

“What’s in it?” he asked in a hushed voice. Something about this particular side temple made him uneasy. It felt different in a way that he hadn’t experienced since Lian Yu.  
“I...have no idea.” she whispered, “I can’t see past the vines that have grown over it, but something is in there. I can feel it.”  
“Let’s come back later, when the sun is shining into it,” Oliver suggested, “we still have a huge temple to explore.”

Hand in hand, they made their way to the inner courtyard that hid the sacred pool. The jungle was slowly heating up around them, sending gusts of humid air across the pathways and over them as they followed the bends and curves laid out before them.

“Did you know that this temple is over one thousand years old?” Felicity asked.  
“It doesn’t look a day over 950,” Oliver answered dryly.  
“Oh, you did not just make an age joke,” Felicity groaned in mock pain, “I almost like your Mr. Manpain self better.”  
Oliver laughed at her and bent down to give her a quick kiss.

“Come on,” he said, “let’s get in the shade. It feels like my skin is about to catch fire.”  
“Is the car in the shade?  
“Oh...no…”  
“Oliver! It will melt in this heat!” she laughed.  
“I’m kidding! It will remain in the shade all day but this heat...yikes.”  
“Oliver...you are going into the pool, right?”  
“This pool? Here?”  
“Yes, we just go in with our clothes on, we don’t have to change.”  
“...ok.”  
“It’s not like I am asking you to wade into a pool of lava,” she laughed, “The water is fresh and clean as it comes out of the spouts.”  
“Well, ok. That sounds better than what I envisioned. Can we rest for a bit though? This heat is killing me,” Oliver said as he lowered himself onto a stone bench that was built into one of the many stone walls that helped frame the pathways and kept the jungle at bay.

“Did you know that this the temple is dedicated to Vishnu?” she asked.  
“Felicity, why don’t you just tell me all about the temple,” Oliver suggested with a small chuckle, “I like listening to you.”  
“Like...when I explain things? I thought you just did your stoic guy thing and let me ramble.”  
“Well…”  
“Think long and hard about how you want to finish me, Oliver.”  
Oliver froze for just a quick second as he was reaching into his backpack for a bottle of water.

“Oh my God,” Felicity groaned, “I meant finish the sentence to me!”  
“You said it,” he laughed.  
“I swear, this island has me all turned around.”

Oliver couldn’t argue with her there. He was glad they were out in public where they had to watch how they touched each other, how they looked at each other and even the words they spoke to one another. They weren’t under any stress but just acutely aware of each other’s bodies and certain rhythms.

“Let’s head over to the pools,” Felicity said, “it looks like there is a lull in the flow of people.”  
“That’s because it is 1000 degrees out with 200% humidity,” Oliver grumbled.  
“Oliver, you have been branded, tortured, and kept prisoner for 5 years but the heat on Bali is going to break you?”  
“It’s 1000 degrees, Felicity!”

Peels of laughter followed him as he walked ahead of her to find a recycling bin for their energy drink bottles. He couldn’t help but laugh at himself. He knew it would be hot on Bali, a heat he would have to get used to, but he was being a bit overly dramatic.

He turned back to find her buying a necklace off of a little boy who was selling them to the temple’s attendees. His arms were loaded with what looked like hundreds of different hand strung necklaces. A little girl behind him was pulling a small cart loaded with woven shirts. Before he could stop her, she bought a blue striped one which he knew she was going to give him to wear.

“Here!” she said excitedly, “this is for you. The blue matches your eyes.”

It may not have been his style but the way she looked at him, and the thought behind her impulse gift to him, meant he would wear it even if it itched and the dye rubbed off on his sweaty skin. It was a small sacrifice to make when he saw the joy in her eyes.

“I love it,” he said softly and smiled as she slipped into his embrace for a quick hug.

“Yeah, maybe you don’t but it will look amazing on you, I promise.”

Taking her hand, he pulled her towards the pool. The sun was climbing in the sky and he could feel the heat of the sun even in the shade but what was causing him the most discomfort was the heat that was coiled deep in his lower pelvis. He could feel it surging through his veins in bursts of fire. The sooner he was in the water, the better.

“There are lotus flowers in the pool,” Oliver said dubiously, “is this safe?”  
“How many people do you see in the pool, Oliver?”  
“A lot.”  
“You stay here by our stuff and I’ll go in first,” she said, “just to prove it is ok.”  
“I’m not scared, Felicity.”  
“I know, I know, but still,” she teased, “I don’t want you to chicken out.”

Before he could say anything in response, she was down the steps and into the pool. He watched her as she slowly made her way towards one of the spouts that was pushing out fresh water from its ancient source.

She was the only blonde in the pool and she glowed. She was luminescent in the shadows cast by the high stone walls opposite where he sat. He watched as she slowly approached an open spout and place her flower offering on a plate above it.

With a small hesitation, she walked under it and allowed the cooling waters to rush over her hot skin. Her white dress turned translucent and clung to the curves of her body. She failed to notice because she was entranced by the water and the flood of it as it flowed over her.

“Your wife is beautiful,” said an elderly woman who had come to sit near him on the steps of the pool.

Oliver looked over at her and smiled, “We aren’t married.”  
“Oh, I think you will be,” she smiled back, “here she comes. Take this offering over to the plate and welcome her spirit into you.”

With that, she pressed a small frangipani flower and a tiny gold charm of a woman into his hand and walked away. Oliver watched her as she retreated back to a stone bench nearer to the jungle. The breeze was ruffling the hem of her deep red sari and he caught her smiling at him from deep within the shade she was sitting in.

Felicity was walking slowly back towards him. Her fingers were trailing in the water and she looked deeply lost in thought. She still had yet to realize the image she was creating with her translucent white dress and wet blonde hair. She looked like a Goddess as she made her way back to him and he noticed a few of the men and women in the pool steal looks at her as she walked past.

When she spotted him, her face broke into a smile that outshone the sun.

“You need to go stand under the spout. It...it is indescribable,” she said in a quiet voice.  
“In what way?”  
“The water is cool but it doesn’t just cool your skin, it cooled _me_.”

Oliver looked at her more closely. She looked peaceful, relaxed and centred. Without another word, he slipped off his shoes and waded into the water. It was cool against his sun heated skin and it felt divine.

When he got to the spout, he placed the gold charm and flower on the plate above it. He spent a moment to acknowledge the land he was on and the temple he was in and then he stood under the spout as it poured out the constant fresh water.

In that moment, Oliver understood what Felicity was saying about how the water did more than just cool her skin. He felt the coiled heat in his body loosen and relax. He felt as though that fire in his blood was smothered, tampered down. He felt the instant relief as it flooded through him and spent a moment to rejoice under the spout.

Reluctantly, he made his way back to Felicity and where she was sitting on the steps. He spotted the old woman who had made the comment to him earlier about marrying Felicity off in the shade behind where she was sitting. She still had a small, knowing smile on her face as she watched him leave the pool.

“Hey,” Oliver called softly, “did that woman come and say anything to you?”  
“What old woman?” Felicity asked while looking around.  
“The one behind you in the red sari.”  
“I don’t see her,” Felicity said as she turned and looked behind her, “Is she over by the other pool?”  
“No, she was right behind us...you didn’t see her?”  
“Maybe she left?”

Oliver looked around in puzzlement. She had been sitting maybe 10 feet behind Felicity, watching her with a gentle expression, almost one full of understanding and what he took to be love, and then in the blink of an eye she was gone.

“Do you have any idea how truly beautiful you are?” Felicity asked him, breaking him out of his revere.

“What?!?”  
“You are. I wish I had filmed you walking out of the pool. Oliver, you are amazing.”

He studied her for a moment and then pulled her to her feet and into his arms. No one had ever said anything like that to him before and all the emotions it caused threatened to overwhelm him. She flooded his senses and surrounded him with so much love and trust he sometimes felt like maybe he was still lost in the cosmos in Manaba’s hogan. Mesa Verde opened his eyes and heart but left him reeling.

“We are attracting attention,” came Felicity’s muffled voice.  
“Let them watch,” he said as he planted a kiss on the top of head.

Leaning back to look up at him, Felicity said in a gentle voice, “Did you enjoy the pool?”  
“I did. You were right, it cooled me off inside _and_ out.”  
“Told ya,” she teased.  
“Come on, let’s walk around and dry off, maybe get a snack,” he said as he guided her out of the pool.  
“Oh man, I am starved!”  
“You eat more than I do. I don’t get it!”  
“Um, our nightly workouts are burning more calories than I am taking in, buddy.”  
“Oh you are not kidding,” he laughed, “come on, let’s go explore.”

The rest of the morning was spent walking and exploring the temple ruins. It was hot, so they moved slowly and with purpose, sometimes hand in hand, sometimes apart. The sunlight was hotter than anything he had ever felt and the humidity made the air thick.

He rounded a corner and saw her, illuminated by the sun, as she stood in front of the overgrown temple doorway. The sunlight surrounded her, it bounced off her hair and bathed her skin in a deep golden light. Her thin white cotton dress, now dry from her earlier venture into the pool, was translucent in the light and showed the firm curves of her body.

Oliver stood frozen to the spot as he watched her stand, transfixed, in front of the temple doorway. Before the moment was lost, he switched his phone to camera mode and took her picture. If he managed to capture even a fraction of the sundrenched beauty that was Felicity in that moment, he would be happy.

“Hey, Oliver,” she called back to him, “I think I am about ready to combust. Maybe we could make our way back to town for lunch?”  
“I thought you would never ask!”

On their way out, Felicity stopped to fill one of their water bottles from one of the waterspouts. She had been encouraged to by one of the local ladies at the side of the furthest pool. Oliver had overheard the conversation and was curious what the water might actually be good for outside of bathing. Bali had many secrets and he wondered if this was one of them.

Right before they got in the car, Oliver had an idea.

“Hey, let me try on that shirt.”  
“Are you sure? It is super hot out and the fabric isn’t the thinnest…”  
“Yeah, I’m sure.”

Wordlessly, she handed it over and watched as he quickly put it on over his light grey shirt.

“I was right!” she exclaimed, “It does match your eyes!”

Shaking his head at her, Oliver flagged down a woman who was passing by in a larger group of French tourists.  
“Could you take our picture?” he asked, holding out his phone all set and ready to go.  
“Oui! Yes, of course!” said the woman.

Oliver quickly pulled Felicity over and into his side.

“Kiss her cheek!” called someone from group.

Felicity offered up her cheek and Oliver leaned in and kissed her.  
It turned out to be his favourite picture of the day.

 

II

 

_The Goddess Danu felt the golden woman enter the sacred stream. She knew what to expect as a mangy dog had entered her dreams and told her about the two foreigners who had come to her lands._

_Coyote. Yes, that is what the dog had called herself. Such a strange name and stranger animal. She spent most of her time chasing her tail and snapping at the stars. She warned that the Warrior, the Ksatriya as Danu identified him, would overheat their pools so they needed to be ready for him._

_The trembling heat that leached out of the skin of the foreign couple shot through the cracks in the earth and caused steam to fly up and through the vents that covered the small island._

_Batur could smell them on the wind. They smelled like the sunlight as it would heat the air in the hottest months. It carried the scent of ozone and something floral she had never smelled but it was smooth and gentle._

_Maybe this won’t be so hard after all, she mused to her siblings, maybe we won’t have to break down the walls in their minds and hearts like with the others._

_But the confluence taking place under the skin of the earth was pushing towards something bigger than anything the four siblings had ever seen. The presence of the two had created a rumbling under their feet and it was one that could not be ignored._


	6. Kundalini-Shakti

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity return home from the temple only to discover something surprising. They get derailed by each other's desire many, many times. 
> 
> The pair of them have tapped into something powerful that they are only just beginning to understand.  
> This chapter shows the connection they have to each other, the universe and the earth.

**Chapter Six: Kundalini-Shakti**

_Tender ghost lit moments_   
_push at the seams_   
_of her delicate world._

 

I

 

They arrived back at their villa full of good food from lunch, loaded with groceries from the local market, and sticky with sweat from the unrelenting heat and humidity. It was still technically spring but the temperatures were soaring into the high 90’s. The resort staff that helped them back up to their villa warned that a rain was headed their way and would probably arrive the next morning.

“Why didn’t we check the temperature before we came here?” Oliver groaned as he flopped down on the couch.  
“Well, I did and the description I read was for two seasons, hot and ON FIRE,” she laughed, “We are here for the hot season.”  
“You have got to be kidding me.”  
“Come on, let’s put the groceries away, go for a dip and have a nap.”  
“Deal!”

Ten minutes later, bathing suits on and towels in hand, Oliver opened up the french doors for them to go out to the pool and promptly closed them again with a firm shake of his head.

“Nope. That air almost knocked me out. I am staying in.”  
“What? What are you talking about? It can’t be that bad,” she said as she pushed past him to open the doors.

The air that greeted her felt like a hot, wet cloth backed by the winds from Hell. She had never felt anything quite like it. It choked the air from her lungs and almost set her hair on fire.

“Holy. Crap,” was all she managed to squeak out before slamming the doors shut.  
“I told you.”  
“So what now? Nap time?”  
“Hmmmm... a nap would be nice,” he mused as he drew her to him.  
“We aren’t going to sleep are we?”  
“Not right away.”

Oliver took her face in his large hands and studied her until she felt herself blushing.

“Why are you looking at me?”  
“You told me that you think I am beautiful today.”  
“I did. You are.”  
“I stopped really looking at my reflection when I got back from Lian Yu. I didn’t recognize myself and all the scars... I stopped thinking of myself as whole.”  
“Oliver…”  
“No, let me finish,” he implored softly as his thumbs traced the shape of her face in delicate circles, “Until I met you, I was just a blank canvas. Ready to be whatever was needed because I had no idea who I wanted to be. Now...I want to decide what I am, who I am and I don’t think I could...even be in a place in my life to think that if not for you.”  
“Oliver,” she smiled, “you have always been so beautiful to me. Not perfect but always so beautiful.Like in the desert, you glowed with so much light...I could feel it. And it was all from inside you.”

Oliver noticed in the silence that followed her words that their breathing had synced up so that they were in absolute unison. Without taking his eyes off of hers, he slowly traced her face and neck with his finger tips. She was standing close enough that he could feel as her breasts pressed into him with each breath she took. Her eyes, normally a deep, azure blue were darkened as her increased arousal for him had blown the pupils to the outer limits of her irises. A flush was creeping up her neck to her cheeks and her breathing was growing deeper and shorter.

“Oliver…,” she breathed, “no waiting…”  
Before she could finish her thought, he dipped his head low and captured her lips in tender kiss full of passion and love. He sucked gently on her bottom lip until he heard her moan and all his resolve to take things slow dissolved and he opened to her completely. He felt her smile into his kiss, her tongue dance around his and the fire in his blood ignited.

Her hands circle around his torso, pausing to gently trace a new pattern on the scar tissue on his lower back before her hands found their way under the waistband of his swimming trunks. She pushed the coiling heat in lower pelvis to a boil. The cooling effects of the temple’s waters had no defenses against her touch. It was what his body needed and wanted for a very long time. When she broke free to delicately kiss the centre of his chest, he stopped breathing and lowered his head to rest on the top of hers.

“Felicity,” he murmured in a low, husky voice, “this place…”  
“Is going to kill us?” she volunteered with a small, husky laugh.  
“But it will be an enjoyable death.”

Smiling up at him, Felicity took a small step away from him and slowly removed her bikini top. It was in the slanting afternoon light that he noticed her arm and where the bruise was, or rather, where it strangely almost wasn’t.

“Look at your arm,” he said in puzzlement.  
“What? Why?” she asked as she looked at what was now a very faint outline of what had earlier been a very dark, pronounced bruise that had almost completely encircled her arm.

“Oliver...what...where did it go?” she asked in confusion and wonder.  
“You had it when we were at the temple but then I just...I don’t know, I guess I stopped noticing it.”  
“You don’t think the water...washed it away?”  
“I have no idea but something happened.”  
“Maybe Coyote helped us out?”

Oliver laughed and pulled her after him to their bedroom.

“I think we are at the mercy of forces we don’t understand but I am sure that will change before long,” he chuckled, “all I know is that ever since we touched down, I have felt something alive here besides you.”  
“Let’s figure out the bruise later.”  
“Yeah…,” he almost breathlessly agreed as she closed the distance between them.

He hooked his hands into her bikini bottoms and tugged them down, allowing them to fall the rest of the way to the ground on their own. She complied by assisting in removing his swimsuit down over his very hard erection. His desire for her was a living, breathing thing that crackled and sang under his skin.

In one smooth motion he picked her up and climbed onto their bed. He could feel the tremors under her skin and knew her desire for him was pushing at the seams of her resolve. She was vibrating in sync with the island, he could feel their united frequencies and it only served to push his desire for her to a breaking point. He loved her, fiercely and deeply, but there were times when he felt they couldn’t get close enough to satisfy the fire that threatened to consume them both. He felt devoured by his love for her and had no idea when that would change.

When she went to lie down on the bed, he stopped her.  
“No, come sit on my lap.”  
“Facing you?”  
“Yeah.”

Crossing his legs underneath her, he helped her get comfortable as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He could feel how ready she was for him as his hard, throbbing cock rubbed through her hot, wet length. He felt her shudder at the contact between them. Her breath blew hot and fast across his chest.

“Hi,” he smiled when they finally got comfortable.  
“Hi,” she smiled back, winding her arms around his neck and shoulders.

He could feel her thumb tracing a delicate, winding path up and down his neck. It pushed him dangerously close to that blank space in his mind where he allowed his body to take over. All he wanted was the velvet heat of her wrapped around him but not in an all consuming lustful way. What he wanted was to be deep inside her, to feel their connection grow and to lose himself in her pulsing warmth.

Lifting her hips, she rubbed up his hard length and lined him up with her entrance and slowly pushed down, enveloping him with body. He dropped his head to her shoulder and breathed through it. When she tried to lean back, he pulled her closer so that there was no space between their bodies. Felicity moved her hips in a slow, circular motion occasionally changing direction and speed.

“I love the way you feel wrapped around me, Felicity,” he whispered in her ear in a low, throaty voice, “I love the way you taste on my tongue, the way you sound when I am inside of you. I can’t imagine never wanting you.”

In answer, Felicity held onto him in a tighter embrace and he could feel every tremor, shudder and pulse of her body. He focused on the way her body throbbed around his cock, the small gasping moans she made as her hips moved faster so that she was grinding against him. In answer, he used his strength to rock his hips into her, meeting her with gentle thrusts of his own.

He could feel her orgasm building and knew that soon she would flex gently forward before trying to push away from him by arching her back. He had watched her reach this point many times over the last two months and never tired of it. Oliver moved his arms more firmly around her and held her tightly to him. He wanted to feel her entire body as she came, he wanted to experience everything she felt as she felt it.

“Oliver,” she gasped, “Oh God…”  
“Come on, baby,” he whispered as he nuzzled into her neck, “I want to feel you.”

Felicity dug her nails into his back as she tried to arch away from him, when she found she couldn’t, that he had her pinned against his body, all she could do was pull herself closer to him. He felt the pulsing of her body and her heartbeat simultaneously. His throbbing cock started to swell inside her and he moaned into her neck.

It was as he felt his release approaching that Felicity squeezed him deep inside her. He held onto her as though she alone were keeping him tethered to the earth. He felt the coiling pressure, full of fire and life, unravelling at the base of his spine and he came inside her in a long, hot sputtering stream. He felt the fire that had been coiled in his pelvis cool and relax. Felicity continued to used her inner core to pulse and tighten around him, triggering another powerful orgasm that left her shaking and weak in his arms. He felt her breath on his neck and her head on his shoulder.

They remained locked in a tight embrace for several minutes. Neither one spoke or moved, they simply focused on recovering their breath and energy.

“That...was intense,” Felicity eventually said.  
“It was...maybe a little too intense,” Oliver softly chuckled.  
“Did we just do a Kamasutra position?”  
“...maybe…”  
“Don’t be coy, Oliver,” she laughed.  
“It’s called the Lotus Blossom.”

Felicity pulled back and looked at him. She had a slight smile on her face but didn’t say a word, instead she kissed him. It was the kind of kiss that started slowly but built in intensity and depth. He felt himself surrendering to it and to her. It only took a moment, but he knew, deep within his soul, that he was as committed to her now as in any life they may have shared previous to this one.

“Let’s go shower,” he suggested.  
“Together?” she asked dubiously.  
“Yeah,” he laughed, “why not?”  
“Oliver,” she began sternly, “can you honestly say you aren’t going to touch me in there?”  
“I can’t say that, but I can promise you that I will,” he winked and picked her up and carried her into the bathroom.  
“OLIVER!” she shrieked with laughter.

Oliver made good on his promise. He washed her body for her with a firm, stroking hand, he washed her hair with the gentlest of fingers, he made her shudder and cry out against him until he had to support her so that she could stand. He whispered in her ear the entire time although later, for the life of her, she couldn’t recall a single word. What Felicity could remember was the strength of his body, the length of his fingers as they moved within her and the feel of his tongue as it stroked hers. He made her body sing in harmony with his own.

Twenty minutes later, clean and dry, they stumbled back to their bed and fell into an exhausted sleep.

 

II

Oliver awoke to the acrid smell of something burning. Adrenaline took over and he shot out of the bed, looking for the source of it. Seeing nothing on fire in the bedroom, he looked for Felicity, who was also not in the room. Grabbing his discarded swim trunks, he put them on as he made for the bedroom door.

“FELICITY!” he yelled at full volume as he ran out of the room.  
“It’s ok! It’s ok! I...I was trying to make dinner,” she called back.

Oliver ran into the kitchen to make sure the entire place wasn’t burning to the ground only to see her standing beside the stove with a single smoking pot in her hand. The look on her face was a combination of confusion, sadness, disbelief and embarrassment.

There was nothing in the pot. No remnants of food, no sticky sauce turned to caramel, nothing but a blackened bottom pot being held in one hand by Felicity. All the ingredients for dinner were still on the counter which meant something almost oo funny for him to really consider.

“How...what...were you just boiling water?” he asked incredulously.  
“Yes,” she pouted.  
“Stop being adorable, I need to laugh at you and I can’t if you are being adorable,” Oliver protested.  
“Oliver! I was trying to make us something to eat for dinner. All I did was boil water for pasta and...I guess I boiled it too long.”  
“You are still being adorable.”  
“You know you love it.”

Oliver lost the battle and burst out laughing as she pouted at him. He had no idea anyone could burn water. Even during his darkest hours on Lian Yu, he was able to adequately feed himself. How she had survived to adulthood presented a mystery to him that he would have to ask about later. For now, he ushered her out of the kitchen and told her to relax by watching a movie.

As though to spite him, she put on The Princess Bride and turned up the volume.

“I still think you are adorable!” he called into the livingroom.  
“I’ll put on The Princess Diaries if you don’t watch it, Oliver!” she called back.

He laughed to himself so she wouldn’t hear because he KNEW she was serious and he doubted he could last 5 minutes of that playing. Their tastes in movies and tv were vastly different and a source of contention but he always gave in just to see what made her happy. There had been a lot of misses in amongst the successful hits where they agreed on something.

Within twenty minutes he had made a salad of local Bali watermelon and strawberries in a coconut and mint dressing, chicken wrapped in banana leaves, along with some traditional cakes, or jajanan pasar, which he had picked up in the market for dessert. It was light but nourishing and nothing was burned in the process.

“Oliver, that was amazing,” she sighed, “Where did you learn to cook? WHEN did you learn to cook?”  
“I think the more important question here is how come you CAN’T cook? Did Donna never teach you how?”  
“She was a cocktail waitress in Vegas, Oliver. I am lucky that I didn’t wind up just like her!”

Oliver looked at and smiled, “There is no way you could have ever turned out to be anything other than you.”  
“Oliver, I love you.”  
“I love you, too, but that doesn’t explain how you can’t boil water.”

Felicity turned to look him dead in the eye and without even glancing down, she picked up her tablet, turned it on and pressed a button. From the tv came the theme song he had grown to dread.

“Nooooooooooooo!” he groaned.  
“Yes,” she said.  
“You know I hate Bridgette Jones!”  
“Too bad. You brought this on yourself.”

Shaking his head, Oliver left and did the dishes. She never got angry, but she did get even, he thought. I’ll question her when she can’t access her tablet.

A few minutes later, he heard the french doors open and close. Curious as to what she might be up to, he put the last of the dishes away and followed her outside. The ocean breeze had picked up and had cooled the patio off considerably since midday. He watched as she let her dress fall to the ground. Framed from behind by the setting sun’s rays, she looked like she had been dipped in gold.

Rather than disturb her, he slowly made his way over to the outdoor bed and laid down to watch her lazily swim back and forth in the saltwater pool. He caught sight of her left arm and again wondered what exactly had happened to her bruise. Neither one of them was shocked by its disappearance, which didn’t so much surprise him as amuse him. They has seen so much together over the last 3 years that a disappearing bruise meant very little in the grand scheme of things.

The breeze kept him cool but he felt that insistent surge at the base of his spine. He had a feeling no matter what they did, they would both have to figure out how to manage the inferno that had been ignited between them. It felt like the tidal pull of a river combined with an earthquake. He’d never felt anything like it and every time they were together the intensity grew. It was a wonder they hadn’t exhausted themselves with all the love making they had been doing.

As he watched her slowly exit the pool and wrap herself in one of the resort’s large fluffy towels, he felt himself stir. Her skin had taken on a delicate radiance ever since her bath at the temple. In the dimmest shadow, where light was weakest and lost its hold on the day, she glowed with a resplendent radiance.

“Felicity,” he called softly, “come here.”  
“No more teasing me about my cooking?”  
“Nope,” he smiled.  
“Ok, just let me dry off.”

In what seemed like an eternity later, she crawled up next to him and gave him a quick kiss before turning around to face away from him. Inwardly, he groaned. She smelled so good, like coconut oil and the ocean, and she felt so good pressed up against him. Firm but supple. He forced himself to focus on the sunset that was slowly pulling together all the colours of the rainbow into its sinking gravity.

“Bali is perfect,” she sighed.  
“It is. The water from the temple that you brought back? What are you going to do with it?” he asked out of genuine curiousity.  
“I don’t know. One of the old women at the pool told me to bring some home with me and I would know what to do with it.”  
“Really? And do you?”  
“Not yet.”

They lapsed into a comfortable silence. Oliver had been lightly running his fingertips over her skin in an ever changing pattern. She shivered under his touch and pressed back into him with increasing pressure. He felt her take a deep breath before relaxing under his touch.

“Oliver,” she said quietly, “we might have to cut this vacation short if this continues.”  
“I know,” he sighed, “but I kinda want to enjoy this a little while longer.”  
“Me, too,” she chuckled softly, “but let’s enjoy the sunset. I’ve never seen colours like this before.”

It was true. The sky was alive with colours that shifted and changed every few minutes. There were no clouds in the sky to obscure their view, just jungle trees and the low stone wall at the end of the patio.

The light took on a deep rosy tone and the shadows around them seemed to come to life and searched for them. They hadn’t lit any candles or lanterns, so darkness quickly blanketed them. The stars came out in the night sky and their cold white light created a luminous haze that swirled through the coming darkness.

He remembered their first night under the night sky at Mesa Verde and how they had made love under the watchful eyes of the stars and galaxies that slowly sailed past. The stars and galaxies paled in comparison to her. Their ancient light shone through her that night and bathed them both in their cold fire.

Here, under the warm Bali sun and sky, something different was rising to meet them. It was under their feet and all around them. He knew Felicity felt it, he knew she was processing it and how her bruise could almost be gone. Part of him was grateful because of the guilt he still felt pulling at his conscience but it was something they were sure to figure out together.

But right at that moment, he had other things on his mind. There was only so much he could take of her moving against him. He ran his hands over her body, slipped one between her legs and ran his fingers lightly down her length, feeling her wetness and how her level of desire for him matched his for her. His cock laid heavy and hard against her back already but he was trying to draw things out just a little longer.

Felicity gripped his arm in an effort to keep his hand where it was as his fingers were slowly tracing an ever changing pattern around her swollen clit. Her breathing was already changing as she rocked her hips against him. He could smell her, the essence of her, and he sent his fingers after the source.

“Mmmmmmm….Oliver…” she moaned softly.

He slowly slid two fingers in and out of her, taking his time, feeling her slowly move towards that bliss filled place in her mind and body where it was only him and her. He loved the sounds she made, deep husky moans and breathy sighs, and the sinuous way she moved her hips against him.

Oliver wanted her to stay in this space of arousal so he withdrew his hand from between her legs and traced circles around her nipples with his soaking wet fingers. He felt her shiver and decided he had waited long enough to taste her. Slowly, he turned her onto her back and and kissed her, long, slow and deep. She held onto his head, trying to keep him where he was, her tongue dancing around his felt like velvet fire and she tasted like honey.

Breaking free from her, he slowly moved down her body, taking time to gently suck and kiss the sensitive parts of her neck and shoulders. Her contented sighs followed his languid journey across her rounded corners and edgy curves.

Tenderly, he swirled his tongue around her one nipple, while cupping her other breast, taking his time to suck it and gently tease with his teeth until it was swollen and hard. He moved over to the other one and repeated his actions until he heard her gasp.

Licking his lips, his raised his head up so that he could whisper in her ear, “You taste like strawberries and watermelon.”

Before she could move, he eased back down her body, stopping to gently kiss the tender spot between her breasts, he felt her shiver and her hands in his hair. Oliver wasn’t sure how long he could maintain the wait but he knew he had to try.

He trailed a zigzagging path with his tongue down the centre line of her torso. Down the gentle curve of her belly and lower. He felt her abdomen flex as she lifted herself up to see what he was doing. He looked into her cobalt blue eyes and moved further down the bed just out of reach of her searching hands.

Felicity opened her legs wider in anticipation of his destination but he did something that surprised her: he pulled her legs in closer to his head, putting her legs directly over his shoulders, and wrapped his strong arms around her hips so that he could hold her in place. He knew it would create a tension deep within her core.

Gently, he lowered his mouth and used his tongue to tease her open, to breathe her in and taste her, before swirling his tongue in a lazy circle around her sensitive clit. Felicity moaned and fell back onto the bed. He watched as she gave in to him and closed her eyes as he pushed her towards ecstasy.

Oliver covered her with his mouth and sucked as tenderly as he could until she grabbed wildly for his hands. Lacing their fingers together, he increased the tempo and intensity of his tongue on her clit until she shuddered, cried out his name and lifted her hips up as she came with such force that he had to hold onto her so they remained on the bed.

He backed off just enough so that she relaxed back onto the bed. He felt the trembling in her legs and the way she was breathing and slowly eased his tongue into her. She pulsed around him with an energy and fire that left him on the verge of a precipice deep within his mind. He moaned into her and she involuntarily squeezed her legs tighter around his head.

“Oliver...oh God…,” she gasped.

Needing no more encouragement, he rasped his tongue against her and sucked long and deep on her swollen clit until she bucked wildly around him. Her hands had found his head and she held on for dear life. She dug her heels into his back and moved against his mouth until she came again and again.

Oliver stopped and watched her as she tried to breathe her way through the tumbling waves of pleasure that coursed through her body. Her eyes were closed and her chest heaved as she regained her breath. He couldn’t help but smile down at her as he moved up and over top of her.

“Hey,” he whispered, “you ok?”  
“Mmmmhmmmm,” she answered as she wrapped her legs around his waist.  
“Now?”  
She opened her eyes and smiled, “Oh God, yes.”

Pulling his head down, she tenderly traced the outline of his lips with the tip of her tongue before kissing him, much like she did their first night in the villa, only this time she could taste herself.

“You’re right...strawberries and watermelons…,” she whispered.

Oliver groaned and chased after the volcanic heat deep inside her with one satiny push. Gripping her hips, he tried to control her movement but failed. She found his lips and he kissed her until they were both gasping for air. He lost himself to the way she moved against him, to the hot pulsing of her body wrapped around his hard cock, and felt the coiled heat in his spine begin to thrum and vibrate.

He buried himself in her and then slowly pulled out. The sensation made her gasp and he moaned into her neck. When Felicity dug into his skin with her nails and pressed her body against his as tightly as she could, his body took over and his mind went blank. He thrust in and out of her with increased urgency as the fire in his blood burned through him.

“Oh...don’t stop,” she whispered in his ear, “Oliver…don’t stop…God, I love you...”

With his lips on her neck and her whispered words in his ears, Oliver felt her tighten around him as her body rumbled and pulsed like an earthquake. He heard his voice call out her name over and over as he came in a series of uneven thrusts. He was lost, somewhere far away in his mind, remembering when he careened through time and space all in search of her.

“Oliver? You’re crushing me,” came her somewhat strangled voice from underneath him a few minutes later, “You’re really sweaty, too.”

Laughing weakly, he gently withdrew his softening cock from her body and laid down beside her.

“We should take a break tomorrow,” he murmured.  
“No touching?”  
“No touching. Especially below the waist.”  
“Pinkie swear me. Otherwise your words are empty,” Felicity demanded.

Holding up his fist with the pinkie extended, Oliver made the deal.  
“I may live to regret that,” he sighed.  
“Me, too, but at least we can try,” she laughed, “Come on, let’s go shower.”  
“No touching?”  
“Oh you can still wash my hair. But that’s it! Come on.”

Oliver broke his promise within minutes of them stepping into the shower. He protested that it wasn’t the next day, that they were still awake so the deal was meant for when they woke up. Felicity, to her credit, attempted to keep his hands above her waist but Oliver knew her tender spots. He had figured out long ago how to caress her defenses away.

At the end of their shower, Oliver carried her to their bedroom when she clung to him and complained that her legs were shaking too hard for her to stand. He laughed at her weak protests but he kissed her gently before turning out the lights and wrapping his powerful body around hers and slipping quickly off to sleep.

 

III

 

_The earth rumbled, low and deep, venting hot gases and air through seams and cracks made smooth through constant use over time. They were the pathways to the lungs of the world and when she inhaled, the universe trembled._

_The four had joined to become one and embraced the two visitors who were once again rumbling across the surface of their sacred skin. They smelled of starstuff, metallic and cold, now it was time to tame the fire within._

_Danu knew she could cool the fire that was consuming them. She knew the relief that they sought but they had to find it on their own. They had unknowingly entered the fiery stream that connected them to Shakti Kundalini. The only way to survive was through regardless of the heat, the exhaustion, and the unrelenting desire that was consuming them._

_That energy, the sacred life force, demanded their respect and until they figured out how to harness it, the four ancient ones would have to wait, flowing like honey through the seams of the earth, watching the currents of the cosmic winds that flowed from the Warrior and the Woman._

_The Woman, she had bruises on her heart still. The one on her arm was nothing, Danu was able to wash the pain from her cells and heal the damage caused by the Warrior’s demons. But the bruises on her heart were fluid and hard to catch, they were something only the Woman could hold in the palm of her hand and blow away like seeds into the wind._

_Now, Danu thought, if only that Coyote would stop trying to mate with Vishnu’s leg, the wait would be peaceful._


	7. Tripura Sundari

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is where Felicity and Oliver discover what it is that they are on Bali to discover. They find it in their dreams as that is the space where this energy communicates.
> 
> Each part is similar but there are subtle differences in how Felicity and Oliver approach this dream that differs from how they were in the desert in part one of the story.
> 
> This gets really metaphysical really fast. I had to research Kundalini Shakti awakenings to make sure I kept it authentic but Coyote found her way in. She is part of a larger story that Oliver is deeply connected to in my head canon.
> 
> Anyways, this is a slow mover (there has to be one chapter that moves slowly, right?) but it sets the stage for the ending :)

**Chapter Seven: Tripura Sundari**

_Flowing universal wind_   
_older than time_   
_She rises._

 

_I_

**_Felicity_ **

Sometime during the night, the storm arrived. The thunder boomed and the lightning flashed like fire while the rain pounded down on the villa. Oliver and Felicity clung to one another as the jungle shook and roared around them. The ocean swells crashed on the shore and the base of the rocky cliff to the west of them, adding to the cacophonous sound.

Despite the violence of the weather outside, they slept on in relative peace as though the storm was just a gentle summer breeze. Felicity nestled against Oliver, seeking out his gravity more than his warmth even though the air in the villa was cool enough that Oliver shivered in his sleep, making him burrow deeper under the duvet in search of Felicity’s warmth.

The thunder roared but Felicity slipped further into the kaleidoscope of her dreamscape. She was exhausted from the last few days of the unbelievable Bali heat and the insatiable desire she had for Oliver, that they had for each other. Her body was on fire and all she wanted was a day of rest.

And so she began to dream…

_The world fell away from her. It was like she was flying through hallways in search of an exit. She felt the wind on her face and could sense the freedom that awaited her somewhere beyond the walls of her subconscious._

_Uh oh, she thought, if I see Oliver and he sees me, we are going home on the first plane out of here._

_She blinked and found herself in a forest. Felicity looked around and saw tall ferns, trees with trunks so wide they dwarfed even the largest redwoods in the mountains outside of Star City, and flowers that emitted the most beautiful scents she had ever smelled._

_No Oliver, she thought, just me in a verdant forest. Nope, make that walking in a verdant jungle full of strange flowers that smell like heaven._

_She went to take a step forward and flew out over the jungle. The wind blew her hair back and the dress she was wearing fluttered around her body. It felt amazing. The way the air rushed past her, the way the forest smelled, the feel of the sun on her face. She closed her eyes, trusting her dream to keep her safe, and embraced the freedom of flight._

_She felt a rush of energy course through her. It started at her toes and raced up her body, through her body, and out of the top of her head. In a burst of blinding light, it surrounded her like a living, breathing entity. She had the distinct feeling she wasn’t alone but the presence that was reaching out to her felt almost alien and it felt powerful._

_The light pulsed and flowed all around her. Felicity was reminded of how champagne fizzles on your tongue when you drink it but this time the feeling was all over her. Every nerve ending snapped into life and then she saw the woman sitting at the base of the tree._

_Whoah, she thought, that is not Manaba. This woman is young and stunning._

_Felicity watched as the woman rose to her feet in a swirl of red and gold. She saw flashes of lightning and the woman became visible energy. She dissolved into sparks and vanished in a dazzling display of light and fire. Felicity thought she was actually looking at pure energy._

_Ok, now what? she thought to herself. Do I follow or do I go and sit under the tree? If Oliver were here, he would know exactly what to do._

_It was as if he name was some sort of invocation because as soon as she thought it, she felt the very distinct uncoiling of energy low down in her pelvis. It pulsed and radiated out of her body in a bright yellow that shifted to orange. It felt like she was being bathed in a warm jet of water._

_Oh God, she moaned to herself, that feels so good. If this is one of those dreams, I think I’m ok with just hanging out here for a bit._

_The energy pulled her forward and in a flash, she felt herself drawn to an old stone temple gateway. It was intricately built with four pillars and two archways that connected at their bases. Felicity moved around it, climbing over the fallen rocks from the sides and running her hands over its rough surfaces._

_It was buried deep in the heart of the jungle her subconscious had brought her to, so deep that the only sounds she could hear were the distant calls of birds high up in the canopy of trees above._

_She could see flecks of red paint on some of the fallen rocks, on others she could see the faint outline of shapes and letters, some still outlined in gold. It had once been an ornate structure, probably standing above the treetops at one point until the jungle overtook it and shielded it from view._

_I’ll have to try and remember where this is to see if maybe I can get Oliver to come and find it with me, she thought. What am I talking about? It’s a hike, of course he would want to come find it._

_As she rounded one large pillar she came face to face with what she thought was a snake beautifully carved out of red stone. It was covered in symbols and designs so old they were wearing off. They wound all around its body from just behind its eyes to the tip of its tail. The underside of it was a pale sandstone colour where the designs and symbols became a darker colour. It was a symphony of colour and shape and it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Just as she reached up to touch it, the snake blinked._

_Felicity froze, her hand hovering slightly in front of her, and waited._

_With a flick of its tongue, the snake withdrew itself back up into the ruins of the temple’s gate archway and disappeared into the dense shadows of the jungle canopy above. She traced its path for as long as she could and caught sight of one image that flashed with a blaze of light._

 

 

_Well, she thought, I guess I better remember that one. I should probably draw it on my arm with something._

_Before she could find anything on the ground, she felt the distinct pull of energy again and was flung outwards, away from the temple in the jungle and into a maelstrom of energy and colour._

_This is getting way too trippy, Felicity thought, I really just want to wake up._

_Her ascent continued and soon she was high above the jungle but she felt vapor thin, like she was leaving her corporeal body behind and merging with the energy in her dream. She could see everything, hear everything, smell and taste all that was around her._

_The sky was just within reach when she stopped her rise. She looked down and saw a long, snaking river that seemed to be made of living fire. She felt the power of it snaking its way into her and coiling around her lower pelvis and spine before moving steadily up her body._

_She felt energized and alive, like every cell in her body was full of new life and power. Felicity was slowly figuring out what it was she was supposed to see and what it all meant. The temple, the woman, the snake, the river, the way she felt connected to every living cell surrounding her...there was a word for it that was on the tip of her tongue._

_In the distance, she saw a flash of something golden rise over the top of a mountain and moved towards it. Looking down she watched the river continue to radiate molten light and seethe with raw energy. She felt its twin in her body and wondered what the eventual end of the power in motion would be. Would it explode out of her or would it slowly evaporate out of her like a mist or fog?_

_The energy pulsing throughout her body got stronger, hotter, and so intense she felt her cells starting to vibrate. The closer she got to the golden light, the stronger her body reacted to it. It felt like ecstasy on a metaphysical scale, it left her both breathless and feeling enormously content._

_She started to see a shape emerging from the golden light. Felicity peered closer and saw the form of a man taking shape deep within the energy burst. Instinctively, she knew it was Oliver. The pull in her blood was simply too strong for it to be anyone else._

_With his arms open to her, she flew into his embrace and felt them merge into one being. This was more than just their bodies, minds, love and the joining of them into something more than just themselves. This was something life affirming in an eternal, universal way._

_Kundalini! Felicity thought. That’s what this is Kundalini Shakti! No wonder we can’t stay away from one another! Oh boy, when I wake up I’m going to have to figure out how to explain this to Oliver._

_With a deep breath, Felicity took in his essence and tasted the universe in the air around them. Gently, she laid her head against his chest and listened to his heart beat in time with her own. Of all the sounds at night that could wake her up, it was the search for his heart’s song. It soothed her when the nightmares would come, when her fear of the darkness that ebbed and flowed through their lives would overwhelm her ability to remain balanced._

_Oliver kept her balanced in the darkest hours but right now, in this dream full of light and energy, she felt the pull to him as one of completion, of love and a soul soothing calm._

 

The storm outside continued unabated. The thunder roared and the lightning searched for a conduit under the jungle’s dense canopy. Felicity, having sought out and found Oliver’s heart beat, was soundly asleep. She would sleep entwined with him until morning, never once being awoken by a flash of light or booming thunder call.

 

_II_

  
**_Oliver_ **

Oliver’s body unconsciously reacted to the storm raging around them. It was like every flash of lightning hit a nerve and every clap of thunder that chased them tapped into that primal reflex he uncovered while on Lian Yu. being tuned into his environment meant survival but here, all he needed was the soft weight of Felicity’s body pressed against his to make him feel safe and protected.

As the sound of the thunder faded and the lightning flashes became indistinct, Oliver slipped further into the dark rhythms of sleep he rarely encountered. He slowly became aware that he was dreaming.

_The world fell away from all around him. The room he remembered falling asleep in, the one with the enormous bed, the one with Felicity nestled so closely against him, dissolved into nothingness. He felt his consciousness escape his body in a rush of pure energy._

_He stepped out into the void between his wakeful state and his dreamscape and waited to see what might come. He sensed almost immediately that he was not really in a dreamscape._

_Oh boy, he thought, here we go again. I wonder where Felicity is? She will hate this if she sees me. I just hope I don’t laugh when she complains._

_He blinked and was transported from that blank space where realities merged to the shores of an enormous, turquoise blue lake. The jungle pressed in on all sides but the fine sandy shore was managing to hold it back. Oliver looked up at the sky through the canopy and saw a cloudless, deep blue expanse that beckoned him._

_It was then that he felt the deep thrumming of energy uncoiling in his pelvis. It snaked its way up and around his spine, flooding his body with energy and life. It rushed out over his skin in an effervescent flow. It tingled and raised goosebumps up all over his body._

_Wow, he thought, this feels...really good. Maybe too good. I promised not to touch Felicity for an entire day so this is...not good for that promise._

_As he turned to look back into the jungle, he caught a faint glimmer of gold and red deep within the shadows of the ferns that grew from the jungle floor. Peering closer, Oliver made out the form of a man sitting beneath a tree. He calmly stood, smiled at him and vanished into a cloud burst of red, gold and brilliant white light._

_Oliver tried to track the light but his attention was diverted back to the base of the tree where man had been. Coyote was standing there, looking at him with a faintly puzzled expression like he was trying to figure out where man had gone. But, with what looked like a shrug, Coyote lifted her leg and peed on the tree. With a yip and a laugh, she bounded into the jungle and disappeared._

_Goddamn Coyote, Oliver thought with more affection than he cared to admit to, she is always showing up and leaving with a laugh. I wonder why she was looking for the man and not me?_

_He was still chuckling to himself when he felt the pull coming from his lower pelvis. It was hot and insistent, so he followed it. In a blink of an eye, he found himself at the foot of an enormous stone temple. The ancient stone blocks used to construct it were crumbling at the edges and some had fallen to ruin but the temple gate was still intact far above him._

_Oliver ran his hands over the surface of temple, trying to coax out its secrets through sheer will alone. He saw flecks of dull red paint and faint lines of gold working their way around and around the individual pillars that helped for the gateway arch high above him._

_This place was simply astounding. He had seen so many things that defied explanation, that were magical, horrific and terrifying but this was in a realm all its own. Oliver made his way around the entire structure taking in every aspect he could, trying to understand what it was he was being told. There was a message here, he knew it, but he was having trouble sussing it out._

_Felicity and I need to find this place,he mused, if only just to feel the stone. It is smooth but crumbling and won’t be around much longer if the jungle has anything to say about it. Maybe if I don’t tell her it’s a hike…_

_Oliver rounded the last corner and came face to face with the biggest snake he had ever seen. Years in the jungle had taught him to still his body when faced with something this big and potentially poisonous. If it were real, he was having trouble discerning whether or not it was stone or alive in the shifting jungle light._

_Slowly, he took a step back to get both distance and perspective. The snake was wound around each pillar once making it the biggest snake he had ever seen real or not. As the sunlight shifted on its back, Oliver was able to see the intricate designs covering its scales. There were so many that they overlapped and changed as the trees above moved in the breeze._

_They looked like they had been carved into the stone aeons ago. Oliver reached out to touch the snake when it blinked. He froze, hand still in the air, and waited. The snake blinked its jade green eyes again and slowly pulled itself back, unwinding itself from around the pillars and back up through the gateway arch._

_As it passed out of sight into the canopy far above, Oliver saw a sign flash with a blaze of golden light:_

 

 

_What it meant, he had no idea but he was sure Felicity could help when they awoke. He was still tracking the snake’s movements overhead when he felt the distinct and powerful pull of something inside himself. It started in his lower pelvis and flowed up through his body, exiting out of the top of his head. He felt his body grow light and energized as a result._

_He looked to the sky and followed the flow of energy up. As he passed the wooden remains of the gateway arch, he noticed it, too, was inscribed with symbols and designs that were once outlined with gold. The entire structure eventually vanished as the jungle closed in around it._

_As Oliver cleared the top of the thick jungle canopy, he caught a brilliant flash of light off to the east. He watched it pulse with energy and life and wondered what it truly was as he felt the energy in his own body pulse in return. It was like he was connected to the energy and light and it to him._

_What is all this about? I know this has a name...something to do with the chakras, he thought. It is the snake, it has to do with the snake...Kundalini! That’s it! Oh lord, that makes so much of this trip make sense…_

_He looked again at the light and started to move towards it. The closer he got, the clearer it became that there was a form within it and knew instinctively that it was Felicity. He couldn’t see her directly yet, but the pull in his blood, in his cells, was too strong for it to be anyone else._

_With his arms open to her, he flew into her embrace and felt their souls merge into one being. This was more than just their bodies, minds, love and the joining of them into something more than just themselves. This was something life affirming in an eternal, way as she was his universal constant._

_Felicity gave his world balance and perspective, something he had kept at bay for so long because it meant letting someone in. She had broken down all his walls, she and only she had ventured into the darkness that surrounded his heart and struck at it with all her might until cracks had formed and his light had finally found a way to shine out. Yet it was her light that had guided him back to life and for that, he would love her forever. He took a deep breath, felt her essence fill his lungs and the taste eternity on his lips._

_In his darkest hours, when he felt all was lost, she was there to pull him through. As he sank into her embrace in a dream of nothing but light and love, he felt complete, content and a deep, soul soothing calm._

 

Oliver stirred in his sleep. He was vaguely aware of the storm raging around them and pulled Felicity closer to him. The gentle warmth of her body calmed him so that he slipped back into a deep sleep, oblivious to the storm and violence being unleashed just outside their villa. He would remain entwined with Felicity until morning, when the storm broke and the sun came out.


	8. Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a table setter of a chapter. It is long, with lots of conversations and a couple of small moments where Oliver and Felicity truly connect and learn something new about what being in a relationship means. They talk about trust and consent in a really open way that reflects who they are to each other and as individuals.
> 
> I promise. The next chapter coming up (which I will publish in a day or two) is HOT. Think EBR's latest photoshoot hot.

**Chapter Eight: Awakening**

_He laid quietly_   
_Back pressed into roughened stone_   
_And felt her fallen light._

I

Sometime after eight the next morning, Oliver stirred slowly awake. The air was cool in their bedroom so he nestled under the duvet and searched out Felicity’s warmth. Whenever he awoke before her, which was often, he would seek her out if she had shifted away from him. It wasn’t the immediate physical comfort she brought but the gentle grounding her presence gave to him. After long nights of fitful sleep, simply wrapping an arm around her, or finding her head resting on his chest, would realign his mind, body and soul. She was the music his spirit searched for in the darkest hours of the night and the quiet moments after dawn.

This particular morning, he found Felicity snuggled up against him with one arm across his chest and her head on his shoulder. She was sound asleep and looked so lovely in the golden morning light that he didn’t want to wake her but his arm was asleep and starting to hurt.

“Felicity…,” he said softly as he smoothed her hair out of her eyes.  
“Mmmmmmm...mornin’...,” came her mumbled greeting.  
“Morning,” he softly replied, “I need you to move your head.”  
“Mmmmwhy?”  
“Because my arm is asleep and it hurts,” he chuckled.  
“Mmmmmmbut you are sooooo warm,” she whined as she moved her head from his arm to his chest, “Better?”  
“Much. I think we missed the storm last night.”  
“I think so, too. We somehow managed to have slept through it.”  
“Mmmhmm,” he agreed as he slowly ran his hand over the curve of her hip. He pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head.  
“Oliver?” she said rather sharply.  
“What?” he answered as he traced the shape of her thigh. His body was beginning to stir in response to the gentle yield of her body.  
“Stop.”  
“Stop? This?”  
“Yes. We talked about this yesterday. Today is sex free.”  
“I’m just touching your thigh and hip,” he protested quietly.  
“I know and you know what will happen next. I can feel you against my leg. No matter how much I would enjoy it, and you know I would, I am saying no, please stop.”

Oliver sat up, looked down at her and saw that her face was set. She was serious about this and he was taken a bit by surprise. He wasn’t hurt but he was curious about this new development between them and what it actually meant to her.

“You are really serious,” he mused.  
“I am. Oliver,” she said earnestly as she sat up next him, “I love you, and lord knows I love having sex with you, but I was exhausted last night and still we did it how many times? 4? 5? I lost count before we made it to, and did it in, the shower! That...is a lot for my body.”

It finally hit him. She was trying to tell him in her way that she hurting, that her body was saying to her: “Enough.” In his desire for her, he forgot that the amount of sex they were having was taking a very real physical toll on her body. He looked at her, really looked at her, taking in her small frame, and thought about how easy it was for him to pick her up and carry her. How easy it was for him to take control just through sheer physical strength. He thought about it from her perspective and understood where she was leading him.

“Felicity, whenever you say no or ask me to stop, I will do just that. I will take my lead from you, I will never force you to do anything you don’t want to. I will never force you. Period. Your happiness and well being means more to me than I know how to even express...”

Reaching out to touch his face, Felicity said in a quiet, husky voice, “Thank you.”

Gently, Oliver took her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist. She hadn’t yet fully realized the depth of his love for her. He would jump into the heart of the sun if it meant saving her life.

“Come here, it is cold and early. Let’s sleep in,” he coaxed.  
“Ok,” she smiled, “I could sleep in this bed forever.”  
“Boundaries are a new thing for me,” Oliver said as he pulled her into his side, “I never really had them with women before.”  
“I know,” she chuckled, “but they are part of any healthy relationship. Consent is consent and we need to be really clear on that so that there is no confusion moving forward. And I mean that in a loving way, Oliver, I just need to listen to my body today.”  
“I know, hon. But just to be clear...I would have to be dead to not want to make love to you. Like dead dead, not thrown off a mountain dead after being stabbed through the chest by Ra’s Al Ghul or Vertigo flatlining dead, I mean DEAD. In the ground and buried dead.”  
“Ok, ok, ok!” she laughed, “I get it!”  
“I’m just saying!”  
“So you are ok with me saying no on occasion?”  
“Absolutely. Your body belongs to you. And If I weren’t ok with that, I wouldn’t be much of a man or boyfriend.”  
“Or... _lovah_?”  
“Never...say that word that way ever again,” Oliver said as Felicity laughed.

Felicity rested her head on his chest and laid a kiss just above his tattoo. He loved the heat of her body and the way her hair smelled first thing in morning. The gentle rise and fall of her chest, the heat radiating out from her core and the way she almost compulsively traced the tattoo down his torso were all things he could no longer imagine his life without. If she needed the structure of boundaries for there to be equal footing and safety within their relationship, he would gladly give them to her.

“Felicity Smoak,” he sighed, “you are a wonder.”  
“A wonder?”  
“Yes, you continually surprise me.”  
“In good ways, I hope.”  
“In the best possible ways imaginable.”

After a few minutes, just as he was starting to drift off again, Felicity asked, “So...did you have a good sleep last night?”  
“Hmmmm? Good sleep?” he mumbled.  
“Yeah, did you have any crazy dreams because of the storm? I sometimes have crazy dreams when the wind blows hard and there is thunder. Ever since I was a kid, you could ask my mom one day I bet you she would tell you all sorts of stories about me as a kid,” she rambled.  
“Felicity,” he interrupted as she paused to take a breath, “are you trying to tell me you had a crazy dream?”  
“Yes,” she laughed, “I am also asking if you had one.”  
“I did, as a matter of fact. It...was interesting.”  
“How so?”  
“It was...trippy. I think I flew out over the jungle after finding a really, really old temple in the middle of it. And I mean old, it was falling into ruin but still so imposing and beautiful.”

Felicity sat up, the duvet falling down her body. She was framed by the floor to ceiling windows behind them, the golden light of the rising sun spilled around her with molten life. She was light and energy and gloriously naked. He had to physically restrain himself from reaching out to cup her breasts or gently stroke her neck in that way she liked. Instead, he put all of his focus into what she was saying.

“Oliver, I had the same dream.”  
“Did you see an enormous snake covered in symbols and designs with eyes the colour of jade?”  
“Yes! I thought it was made of stone but it wasn’t! It blinked and -”  
“It unwound itself from around the four pillars and then disappeared up into the tree tops!”  
“Holy crap,” she said in wonder, “did you see a woman sitting underneath a tree?”  
“No, I saw a man. Oh! And Coyote!”  
“You have got to be kidding me,” she groaned, “Why do you always see Coyote!?!”  
“I don’t know,” he mused in genuine wonder, “ she likes me I guess. I see her a lot in my dreams.”  
“We’ll talk about that another time, for know I want to know if when you flew over top the jungle…”  
“Did I fly to you?”  
“Yes.”  
“I did. You...you were a being of light and you pulled me to you. I wanted just to...hold you.”  
“I know, I felt the same way. It was like...the world came back into balance around us.”

Lying back down next to him, Felicity pulled the duvet back up around them both. Oliver felt a wonderful, serene calm surround them as they spoke about their dream. Everything about this trip was starting to feel exceptionally good and right. There was a purpose for them choosing this place and they were finding it in each other.

“Oliver...would you maybe want to find that temple?”  
“Seriously?”  
“Yeah, there is something about it that seemed real. Like we are supposed to find it.”  
“It will mean a hike,” he warned.  
“I know,” she laughed, “but I want to find it. It can’t be too remote.”  
“Let’s see if we can find it.”

Felicity smiled into his chest and hugged him tight.

“We should probably get moving. It may take us all day to find on the map even with local help,” Oliver said somewhat reluctantly. He loved their lazy mornings almost as much as he loved her.

Sighing, Felicity said, “Ok. You first.”  
“You just want to look at my butt.”  
“It will look glorious in the morning light! So will your abs. And shoulders. And thighs.”  
“I feel objectified.”  
“Oh my God!”

Laughing, Oliver got up and searched out some clothes to wear. He took his time knowing she was watching him in the sunlight. He got a kick at how blatantly she stared at him now. She always did it before, but carefully and from behind half raised eyes, now she watched him openly, shamelessly, and with the sexiest half raised eyebrow he had ever seen.

If we don’t leave soon, I don’t know that either of us will be able to keep to the No Sex rule today, he thought. Just her looking at me is absolute torture.

“I’ll get dressed, make some coffee and we can figure out the day. Sound good?” he asked.  
“Sounds amazing,” she smiled.

 

II

Felicity waited until she heard the fridge open and the sound of food being laid out on the counter before venturing out of bed and quickly having a shower. If Oliver was busy making breakfast, he wouldn’t be tempted to join her.

Co-showering had become a bit of a habit with them. It wasn’t just a conservation measure, they both enjoyed to simple act of washing the other clean. She loved the way his fingers moved over her scalp when he would wash her hair, or lather her body with whatever bodywash was on hand. His hands had memorized her body but still they could find new pathways, sometimes as small as an inch, that could set her soul on fire.

She loved him, all of him. His scars, tears, seams, ink and valleys. She was determined to map his body, commit every roughened inch, to memory through her fingertips. She still didn’t think he truly grasped the depth of her love for him. In her secret heart, she knew she would dive into the heart of a living sun to save his life.

Ten minutes later, freshly showered and dressed for a day outdoors, Felicity joined Oliver in the living room. He was looking out at their patio and pool area but for some reason, he hadn’t yet opened the french door and ventured out into the warm morning air.

When she retrieved her coffee and bagel from the counter and went to stand beside him, she saw why. They may have slept through the storm but the storm had most definitely happened. There were palm fronds and branches strewn all over the deck, the bed in the outdoor room was covered in debris and the pool was choked with fronds and loungers.

“Wow. I mean...it obviously stormed but wow, we slept through it. How? How could we do that? It must have been crazy!” she exclaimed.  
“I know! It must have been wild out there for a long time,” he mused.  
“Should we let the hotel know they can come in and clean it?”  
“Yeah, we’ll stop in on our way out.”  
“Speaking of which, I should try and locate the wifi signal so that I can track down a possible location of our temple.”  
“You are really serious about this?  
“Yes,” she said with deepening resolve, “I think it is imperative that we find it.”

Unconsciously, Felicity began rubbing her arm in the place Oliver had gripped it so tightly just a couple of days before. It didn’t hurt but something about where they were going made her think of it. Eventually, she became aware of Oliver’s hand pressed reassuredly into her lower back. He was gently rubbing a series of slow circles, as though aware of what she was thinking.

Before he could say anything, she slipped her free arm around his waist and rested her head against his chest so that she could listen to his heart. She loved the sound of it, so deep and steady, and how it felt reverberating through her body.

“What’s this for?” he asked with a smile.  
“For keeping me safe through this,” she answered with a gentle smile of her own.  
“Come on, Miss Smoak, let’s get ourselves ready to go.”  
“I need to look online somehow. The wifi seems to be out of order.”  
“I have an idea on how we might find it…that doesn’t involve a computer or tablet.”  
“How?” she asked in surprise.  
“You’ll see.”  
“Olllllivvvvvvvvvver! You know I hate mysteries!”

Oliver laughed as he wandered away to get ready. She knew he was a vault when it came to these kinds of surprises but she was intrigued by his never ending knowledge of things arcane. Felicity knew it all tied back to Lian Yu but was waiting for the right moment to really dive into that dark pool.

“Come on, Smoak!” he called, “Let’s get moving!”

Narrowing her eyes at him from across the room, she saw the packed backpack he would carry and her hiking boots by the door.

“Wait a second!” she exclaimed, “Where did you pack my boots because I know I did NOT bring them.”

Oliver just grinned at her and proceeded out the front door with their things. Felicity knew he wouldn’t answer her question. He had done this so many times already that it was basically a game now to see what he could do to surprise her. She vowed to retaliate in some fashion that didn’t involve The Princess Bride.

Five minutes later, after stopping at the resort’s main office to let them know about the storm damage, they were off. The storm had done nothing to reduce the temperature but the breeze was slightly cooler as it came in off the ocean.

“So are you going to tell me how you know where to find our temple?” she asked as they made their way into the interior of the island, away from the cool coast and into the humid jungle.  
“Nope,” he answered with a small chuckle.  
“Did you read about it in a brochure on the plane?”  
“Nope.”  
“Did you ask at the front desk for cool places to visit near a lake?”  
“Nope,” he laughed.  
“Did...did Coyote tell you?”

Oliver grinned and reached out for her hand. As he intertwining their fingers, Felicity shifted in her seat to look at him. Behind the sunglasses he wore, he was hiding a twinkle in his eyes. She knew him well enough to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was thinking he had an edge on her and was trying to hide his pleasure at keeping her in the dark.

“Oliver, you did your homework before coming here, didn’t you?”  
“Nope.”  
“Come on! Just tell me!”  
“Nope.”  
“This could turn into a No Sex for Oliver in Bali vacation.”  
“Do not...even joke about that.”

Felicity laughed at his obvious mini panic attack but she did not fail to notice that they had turned down a side road with minimal paving. He knew exactly where they were going, somehow he knew where the temple was and she was bound and determined to figure out just how he knew.

Without taking his eyes off the narrowing road, Oliver raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. She laid her head back onto the headrest and closed her eyes. The happiness she had been feeling ever since Oliver had punched his way through his grief and guilt and found his way back to her would not be undercut by his reticence to reveal his sources.

“Felicity?” he gently called, “We’re here. Or as close to where we are going as we are going to get.”  
“Hmmmmm…? Did I actually fall asleep?”  
“Yup. You snored for a good 5 miles.”  
“Whatever. I do not snore.”  
“Oh you most certainly do!” he laughed.  
“Oliver, we had this discussion in Denver. I do NOT snore.”  
“I recorded you this time.”  
“If you know what is good for your sex life, you will delete that recording.”  
“What recording?” he asked as he parked the car and got out.

Felicity laughed as she followed him into the hot, humid air of the jungle. It was like a sauna but full of bugs, she thought as she laced up her boots.

“Ok, Oliver, enough,” she said with a small hint of exasperation, “How did you know where to go?”  
“You’ll never believe me,” he warned.  
“Yes, I will! How could you think I wouldn’t?” she said with a small glimmer of hurt in her voice.

Oliver circled the car and pulled her into a hug. She resisted him for just a heartbeat before melting into his arms and body. She loved the feel of his body against hers even though he was so densely muscled and layered with scars both seen and unseen.

“Ok, I’ll tell you but you have to promise not to yell at me,” he said with a smile that spoke volumes to her.  
“Ok, I promise,” she said as she narrowed her eyes.  
“I saw it on the front of this brochure,” he said as he quickly unfolded it for her to see.  
“You have got to be kidding me.”  
“Nope!”  
“Oliver Jonas Queen, you have had this since we left Denver and all day you have been sitting on it and not telling me something so simple…”  
“No yelling, remember…”  
“Oh I won’t be yelling at or with you any time soon.”

Oliver laughed and then stopped cold.

“What do you mean ‘with’?”  
“You’re smart enough to figure it out. Or is it a mystery?’ she said with an exaggerated flourish.

In answer, Oliver did something he knew she hated. He put one arm around her waist and picked her up so that she was almost upside down but resting against his hip and proceeded to walk into the jungle. All she could do was flail against his hip as he was holding her so her head was pointed down towards his feet.

His laugh floated up through the trees as she swore at him in language he was surprised to know she had stored away in her endlessly beautiful mind.

 

III

 

Oliver refused to admit to her that he lucked out and noticed the temple completely by accident. He had been wiping the counter in the kitchen down when he had knocked a small stack of brochures over and there it was. The temple from his dream.

He decided to pretend of higher knowledge to keep the mood light but also to drive her nuts. Oliver knew how much she hated mysteries and the lengths she would go to in order to solve it. He might pay for it later, a fact he had no doubt about, but he was having too much fun watching her try to figure it out.

“Oliver, put me down!”  
“Only if you don’t hit me.”  
“I never hit you!”  
“You’re kidding, right?”  
“You are more solid than a brick wall, Oliver.”  
“Your tiny fists find all the cracks.”  
“Sex, Oliver. Do you want to have it again?”

Carefully, he set her on her feet and gently brushed the hair out of her eyes. She was trying to look serious and angry but the twinkle in her eyes gave her away.He chastely kissed her forehead and took her small hand in his and started up the trail to the temple.

“You are one smooth operator, I’ll give you that,” Felicity grumbled.  
“You love it.”

In answer, Felicity landed a gentle swat on his forearm. He laughed and made a move to pick her up again but she quickly escaped his reach and took off up the path in front of him. Her laughter floated back to him as though carried on the sweetly scented jungle air.

He watched her move slowly away from him and marvelled at how entwined his heart was with hers. No matter where she went, he could find her by simply listening for her heart’s song. He would know it in this life and the next and the one after that. It hummed in his veins and every cell of his body.

Twenty minutes later, they rounded a corner on the trail and there it was. It seemed to rise up from the jungle floor, pushing through the fertile earth and ferns. It was massive and crumbling, solid and fragile. To Oliver’s eyes, it looked like it was half in this world and half in another unseen one.

Felicity was making her way around the structure, her fingertips lightly brushing over the rough surface of the stone foundation. The sounds from the jungle, all the birds and monkey calls, were subdued here, like the stone temple was absorbing the sound and buffering them from the usual cacophony that was emitted from the closed canopy of trees they wandered under.

Oliver made his way up to the centre of the temple through the southern entrance and sat on a low stone bench by the eastern gate. From his vantage point, he could see the western and southern ones. The jungle had completely taken over the northern gateway and all that could make it through was the filtered sunlight that streamed down from far above.

“Oliver? Where are you?” Felicity quietly called out.  
“I’m sitting in the temple.”

He caught the glint of sun on her hair as she slowly made her way up the crumbling stone steps and crossed over to him. Reaching out his hand, he wordlessly drew her to him into a long embrace with his head resting against her chest. Something about the moment, the light and her smile created a physical need deep within him. He just needed to feel her skin and listen to her heartbeat.

“So this is the place, huh?” she murmured into the top of his head.  
“Yeah. I wasn’t prepared for how large it actually is and how tall, too.”  
“It is cooler here. Can you feel the breeze?”  
“Yup, I noticed it as soon as we turned that corner before the arched entrance. It is quieter here, too.”  
“I noticed that, too. You can here the ferns when the breeze blows through them. This place is...special,” she mused as she lightly trailed her fingertips across the back of his neck.  
“Felicity, you are edging into territory we have promised each other not to go into today,” he warned as a shiver passed through his body and the fire in his blood started to build.  
“I forgot, I’m sorry!” she exclaimed as she tried to step back from him.  
“Oh no, you are staying right here,” he said quietly, “Sit down with me.”

Oliver lowered himself down to the ground and helped Felicity down to sit between his legs. When she was finally comfortable on the roughened stone surface, he pulled her back so that they were both reclined and looking up at the impossibly tall archway over head.

“I will run all the way back down this mountain if I see that giant snake,” she said in an extremely serious voice.  
“I will probably push you out of my way as I run down myself.”  
“Oliver!” she exclaimed in mock horror, “I’d expect you to at least pick me up and carry me down.”  
“Nope, dead weight.”  
“Oh. My. God.”

Oliver’s laugh rang up to the heavens through the archway and past the treed canopy far, far above them.

“Oliver...what were you dreaming about when you held onto my arm?”  
“Lian Yu,” he said quietly as he instinctively wrapped his arms around her, “I was holding onto a rope to keep from falling into a pit. I...was terrified that I was going to die and all I could hear was Slade laughing at me.”

Felicity reached up to hold onto his arms as she pressed her back into his chest, their version of a reverse hug. Slade haunted her dreams and caused more nightmares than she had shared with him. She thought she was being so careful not to upset him, but he had held her through the worst of her night terrors and knew the main players in her nightmares. He also knew that he had introduced them to her, something he would feel guilty about in private for the rest of his life.

“The tighter I held the rope, the more it seemed like I would fall into the darkness but then...I heard you calling my name and I knew I would be safe. I just needed to climb out of the pit.”  
“Which you did.”  
“But I hurt you, Felicity,” he said in a shaky voice, “I hurt you and I…”  
“Stop it, Oliver,” she said firmly, “You had no idea what was happening. You are not to blame.”  
“Have I mentioned that I love you lately?”  
“Not nearly enough,” she laughed.  
“Now...what about that vanishing bruise?”  
“I think I know. It was the water at the temple. The older women there told me that it would wash away my pain.”  
“Like, literally wash away your pain? As in bruises and all?”  
“Yes, I guess they meant that as well as metaphorical pain.”  
“Meaning?”  
“I think that was for you. You carry so much of your trauma with you, my love, it is visible sometimes.”  
“One day I hope that isn’t true.”  
“It will be. I know it.”

For the next hour they sat in quiet conversation. Felicity didn’t push him about the dreams but he felt compelled to let her in just a little bit more. The space they were in made it easier. He told her about they ways he had to carve out pieces of his soul in order to survive the first year on Lian Yu. About how Waller was able to manipulate him and his love for his family in order to get him to kill.

At times Oliver was sure he heard other voices in murmured conversation around them but they were the only ones there. Felicity would look around at times too, as though scanning the jungle for their source. When they started to speak about their shared dreams the voices got quiet, the wind kicked up and they noticed that the sky was growing darker.

“Come on, it’s getting late and we do not have flashlights,” Felicity said.  
“We still haven’t really talked about our dream OR the one with Manaba!”  
“We’ll do that tonight over dinner. Which you will make.”  
“Damn straight I will. I have no idea how you burned water but…”  
“If you know what is good for you, you won’t finish that sentence.”  
“Let’s go, Smoak!” he said with a laugh, “We need to get on the road before we lose the light.”

Forty five minutes later they were back in their car and slowly making their way back down the mountain towards the coast. Out of the corner of his eye, Oliver caught a glimpse of a man in red sitting beneath a tree. He wasn’t fast enough to see him fully but he knew that it was the man from his dream.

Oliver was able to see one thing fully as they sped past, the man was sitting in the company of a Coyote and both of them were smiling.


	9. Alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another small step on their journey together where they talk, laugh, tease and love each other over the course of a single day.
> 
> This chapter is a slow burn that leads you gently to the inevitable as they reconnect physically out on the beach.
> 
> And boy do I mean reconnect...

**Chapter Nine: Alive**

_She passes over him_   
_Brushing away all regret_   
_And opens his heart to the future._

**I**

That night, after returning from the market and a long, leisurely dinner out by the pool, Oliver grabbed a blanket off of the living room couch and stretched out on one of the oversized loungers. The hotel crew had cleaned their pool area and replaced all their outdoor furniture and bedding with bigger and better items. It was the biggest outdoor lounger he had ever seen. It had more pillows on it than their actual bed.

“Come sit with me,” he called to Felicity.  
“Oliver, you out did yourself with that dinner,” she groaned while rubbing her stomach as she laid down beside him, “I am thankful for this elastic waisted skirt.”  
“Well, you sure packed away that chicken,” he said before he had a chance to stop and think about what he was actually saying.  
“Oliver Jonas Queen…”  
“I’m sorry! It just...slipped out! In comparison to what I ate, it was really nothing. I mean, you look amazing! You are getting so strong from all the hiking and swimming and it only makes sense that you would be hungry considering we only had a small lunch and barely even snacked during the day,” he rushed out in one long breath, “And the peanut satay was perfectly done, I will give you that, and the mango sorbet I made set up perfectly, so really you didn’t over eat so much as show me how much you love my cooking!”

Felicity sat up and stared at Oliver with what was supposed to be a withering glare but the longer he rambled on, the faster her composure began to break. When he paused to breathe, she started to laugh.

“Oh my God, Oliver,” she gasped, “that was amazing!”  
“I actually thought you were going to kill me.”  
“I considered it but you are really heavy and I doubt I could carry you down the stairs to the beach.”  
“The crazy thing is I knew the minute I said it, I was done for,” he laughed.  
“I know, I saw the look of sheer terror that passed over your face. So I let you feel that fear for a minute,” she chided.  
“Let’s watch the sky for a while,” he invited in his softest voice, the one that usually melted her defenses.  
“Ok,” she smiled back, “we still have to talk about a few things though.”  
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he chuckled, “get comfortable and relax for a few minutes first. We had a long day.”  
“I am putting my no hiking moratorium back in place,” she groaned as she rubbed her calf muscles, “My legs are in knots.”  
“Have a bath later. I think there are epsom salts in that cabinet above the sink.”

Felicity side-eyed Oliver at the mention of a bath. She knew how much he loved that tub. It was almost an obsession with him at this point.

“No joining in though,” she warned.  
“Why? That thing is big enough for you, me, Diggle AND Roy.”  
“...what?”  
“I’m kidding! No way would I let Roy anywhere near you again.”  
“But you, me and Diggle…?”  
“Not a chance.”

Felicity laughed at his fake jealousy about Roy and Diggle and snuggled into his side. The night was relatively cool for Bali standards but the sky was clear and the breeze was light. It was a perfect night in paradise.

“What do you think about when you see the constellations we are supposedly part of?” she asked quietly a few minutes later.  
“That some things in this life aren’t just fated to be but are absolutes. That the movement of time and existence is dependent on them happening.”  
“That is...rather metaphysical of you.”  
“You sound surprised.”  
“No! Well...I guess I am,” she said sheepishly, “but in the best way possible. I never really thought about it, or us, in that way.”  
“From the moment I met you, Felicity, I just...knew.”  
“How?”  
“I took my first real deep breath the moment I saw you. Red pen in mouth and all. It was like...I was listening with my whole body to every word you were saying. You echoed in me from that moment forward.”  
“Strange how we needed a Navajo woman from the distant past to tell us that,” she chuckled softly.  
“And Coyote.”  
“I wish Coyote had taken a liking to me!”  
“She did but for some reason she seems determined to follow me.”  
“Birds of a feather…”

Oliver laughed. He was just now figuring out what Coyote was up to. His dreams hadn’t been as detailed lately but Coyote was showing him the way through the minefield that surrounded him. Felicity was with him most times but there were times in his dreams when he was alone, struggling to find his way off of Lian Yu but getting lost in the minefield he had created himself.

Coyote would be on the edges, dancing in the grass, calling to him to follow her lead. Sometimes he made it out alive, sometimes he wouldn’t. Those nights were the hardest. When he would wake up in a cold sweat, gripping the sheets or duvet, praying he wasn’t hurting Felicity.

Looking down at her now, as she gazed sleepily up at the heavens, he felt the sweeping glance of sorrow brush past his heart. There was no force on earth that could make him harm her ever again. The light she had shone into his soul, his life, was the one thing that could have saved him from Ra’s Al Ghul and it did. She did. Knowing that he hurt her while lost to his demons broke a small part of his heart.

“Oliver, I know when you are thinking too darkly.”  
“Too darkly? What does that even mean?”  
“You are rubbing my arm and breathing really deeply.”  
“I was thinking about why Coyote comes to me.”  
“And?”  
“She sometimes guides me in the right direction and sometimes she doesn’t. Sometimes I step on a landmine, and sometimes I find my way off of Lian Yu.”  
“Why do you think she does that?”  
“I thought at first it was because she wanted to see me blow up in a minefield. Now...I think she is trying to get me to trust myself. To believe in me.”  
“You are getting there, Oliver.”  
“Manaba saw strength and power in you, Felicity. It is what keeps me alive some days.”  
“When we swam in the cosmos, which still...I mean...we were stars, Oliver, but anyways, we did that but here the message is different. It isn’t about how we are an absolute, it is more than that…”  
“It’s about energy. A very specific kind of energy.”  
“I’ll say. It’s like what we talked about at the temple all afternoon.”  
“That was lovely, Oliver. The entire day, even the hike.”  
“Should we do it again tomorrow?” he joked.  
“I will be on the beach all day. You can do whatever the hell you want.”  
“I think we all know what that is.”

Felicity laughed at the undercurrent of desire that rumbled through his words. The fire in his blood was still there, he could feel it softly roiling at the base of his spine, but he was able to control it now. Partly because he was respecting her request to be sex free but also because he was discovering that there were other forms of intimacy he was enjoying just as much. This evening on the couch under the stars was an example of that. Their time together had transformed him and he was eternally grateful.

“Oliver?”  
“Hmmm?”  
“My left calf is cramping...hard,” she said through gritted teeth.

Immediately, Oliver slipped down to the ground and began to flex her left foot up and down, while gently holding her leg behind the knee. He could see the knot slowly loose its shape and her leg relax. Hiking was officially off the table from now on until they got back to the States.

“I am going to go pour you a bath with epsom salts. You stay right here and just keep flexing your foot,” Oliver instructed.  
“I’m sorry,” she said softly.  
“For what?” he said as he crouched down in front of her.  
“For wrecking the moment. I love it when we just...talk.”  
“Never apologize for anything like this. You can’t help it if hiking is the worst possible thing you can do to your body.”  
“I’d like to vehemently disagree with you but you are right,” she laughed.

Oliver leaned forward and gently kissed her. He wanted to linger but the spark of energy that passed between them electrified him. He felt his body come alive and quickly, he got to his feet.

“Ju...just wait here,” he managed to stammer. “I’ll go start your bath.”  
“Ok,” she breathed, her eyes closed and her face completely relaxed, “I don’t think I can walk at the moment anyways.”

Oliver chuckled at her and made his way to the master bath. He really was obsessed with this tub but he needed to focus on Felicity and getting her in it without losing control of himself. The next few minutes he spent focused on the bath and getting the right temperature and setting the jets so that they would be a massage for her and not a whirlpool.

“Ow, ow, ow,” Felicity groaned as she hopped into the bathroom a few minutes later.  
“Hey! I was going to come get you!”  
“I wanted to move around and I have to pee, so…”  
“Ok, ok,” he laughed, “the bath is ready whenever you are.”  
“Perfect,” she sighed, “Now out you go.”  
“Yes, ma’am.”  
“What are you going to do while I get my muscles working again?”  
“I am going to go use the outdoor shower and then crawl into bed.”  
“But the outdoor shower only has cold water.”  
“I know.”

Felicity looked at him in puzzlement and then realization snuck up on her and she burst out laughing as he made his retreat.

Twenty minutes later, relaxed and sleepy, Felicity crawled into bed beside Oliver. She had intended to stay on her side of it at first but in those small, endless seconds before sleep pulled her under, she moved towards him, seeking out the warmth of his body like a flower seeks out the sun.

 

**II**

 

The night went by without interruption. They were both exhausted from the long hike in and out of the jungle in their quest for the temple. Felicity remembered snippets of dreams, images and flashes of colour and muffled sound, but nothing as dramatic as the other night. She was convinced the storm blew their dreams in. Carried on the back of the thunder or the fiery edge of the lightning bolts.

Felicity, not yet ready to get out of bed, rolled over and sought out Oliver but he was nowhere to be found. Sitting up, she looked for his running shoes which were gone from their place by the door.

Of course, she thought, out running or shopping. I wonder if he made coffee and left me something to eat.

What she found was a note (yes, he had gone for a long run), a carafe of coffee, fruit and yogurt in the fridge and a promise to join her on the beach later in the day. It was already after ten, so Felicity got busy getting ready so she could get down before to the beach before the sun got too hot.

Grabbing her book, towel and sunscreen, Felicity made her way down the stone stairs to the small slice of sandy heaven they were able to find that was theirs and theirs alone. The next three hours went by in a blur as the heat of the sun slowly lulled her into one nap after another.

Just after two that afternoon, Oliver came down to join her under the huge umbrella she had put up to shield her from the afternoon sun.

“Hey,” he said quietly.  
“Hey you. How was the run?”  
“So humid and hot. Running in the jungle is...not fun.”  
“You don’t have anything to run from here.”

Oliver lowered his weary body down beside Felicity and relaxed into the blanket. The sand was warm underneath it and yielded to his weight.

“True but I just...need to run sometimes.”  
“Well, I appreciate the side benefits of it,” she teased.  
“We really need to talk about how you objectify my body.”  
“You would like me to stop?”  
“Oh let’s not get crazy here. I was thinking you could do it more.”

Felicity laughed and stood up.

“Come on,” she said as she reached down to him, “let’s go for a swim.”  
“I just laid down!” he protested.  
“Come on!”

Felicity loved the ocean and the way it energized her. The warm Indonesian ocean seemed to embrace her when she walked into it. Oliver was a little more apprehensive about swimming in the ocean. She hadn’t asked about the bite mark on his abdomen but she knew a shark bite when she saw one.

Taking his hand, she walked him into the gentle water. It was a swimming beach, so the waves were soft and low. It was crystal clear but turquoise as it approached the edge of the earth. Without a second thought, she let go of Oliver and dove under its surface. Revelling in the weightlessness it provided her.

Surfacing, she caught sight of Oliver standing completely still in the moving surf. He didn’t look scared so much as paralysed by fear.

“Oliver!” she called sharply.

Nothing.

“OLIVER!”

This time he reacted. He blinked rapidly, focused on her and smiled in that beautiful self-aware sadness only he seemed to be able to express. Something had brought a memory up to surface of his mind but she was able to bring him safely back.

“Oliver,” she said quietly as he swam out to her, “what happened just now?”  
“I don’t know. I got lost…”  
“Lost?”  
“Yeah…,” he trailed off, still too hesitant to put into words just what had taken him out of paradise so briefly.  
“Come on, let’s go back up to the villa and get some food. Maybe we could come back down tonight? Go for a...dip?” she asked suggestively.  
“A dip, you say?”  
“Uh huh.”  
“Let’s go up for some lunch, Ms. Smoak,” he smiled.  
“I’m starving. Like I could literally eat a horse.”  
“There is nothing I can say here that won’t land me in hot water, right?”  
“You are learning!” she said as she launched herself at him, trying to push him under.

Oliver caught her easily and carted her, fireman style, out of the water and up the stairs.

 

**III**

 

The rest of the day went by in a series of naps and cooling swims. Oliver had wanted to stay up in the villa but eventually followed Felicity back down to the beach. He was getting used to the luxury of it. To just sit on the warm sand and listen to the water as it lapped at the shore and not have to be on constant alert.

“Oliver?” she asked sleepily.  
“Hmmm…”  
“Tell me.”  
“About?”  
“Earlier,” she said gently as she reached out to lightly stroke his face.

Oliver remained quiet for a minute and thought about what had frozen him in such fear as he waded into the warm ocean. It all tied back to the Gambit and the life he lost as it sank. He had waded through hell, become a weapon whose depths of violence had yet to be fully mined, but he made it through because of her.

“I was thinking about what happened to me after the Gambit sank and I buried my father,” he began quietly, taking her hand in his and linking their fingers together, “and the loneliness and helplessness I felt as I wandered Lian Yu alone that first night.”

Felicity patiently waited for him to continue. She knew he was sorting through layers of emotions and trauma and so she waited for him to find the words to continue.

“But what I was...letting go of...was that feeling deep down, underneath everything, that I AM alone. I am not trying to figure out how to survive, I am not learning how to fight or kill...I finally feel like I am learning how to live.”

“Oliver…,” she began hesitantly, “I am so glad we are learning that together.”  
“Me, too,” he smiled.  
“Let’s...go grab some dinner. I am starving.”  
“Where do you put it all?” he asked without thinking.  
“What are you implying, Mr. Queen?”  
“That you...have an awesome metabolism?” he said hopefully.  
“Good answer.”  
“You head up and rinse off. I’ll clean up down here.”  
“How did I get so lucky?” she teased as she leaned over to kiss him gently.  
“You better go before you can’t,” he warned.

Laughing, Felicity playfully pushed him over as she got up. If there was one thing he loved, it was her laugh and how freely she shared it with him since they left Starling behind.

Oliver folded up the large blanket they had been sharing and left it on one of the beach chairs they had access to. New ones appeared like magic over night and he was forever grateful for the quiet, discreet service the resort provided.

By the time he got up to the villa, Felicity was in the shower and their dinner was set to arrive in half an hour’s time. He had decided to order in and take the night off from cooking and just enjoy one of their last days in Bali. He made a mental note that this was a location they needed to come back to. It held so many answers that he wasn’t sure they had enough time to ask the right questions.

“You can have the shower now!” she called.  
“Ok, be right in!” he answered as he selected the wine to accompany their dinner. He did love their wine bar and would miss it when they left for the next stop in their travels.  
“I think I left enough hot water for you.”  
“I won’t be long,” he called back with a chuckle.

Twenty minutes later, showered and changed, Oliver came out of their bedroom and was greeted by a livingroom that had low lights and soft music playing on the stereo. The french doors were open and the ocean breeze was drifting in. It was still balmy outside, but the sun was slowly sinking and the sky was alive with a palette of colours never seen in Starling or anywhere else.

He sought out Felicity and his breath caught in his throat and his heart pounded in his chest for just an instant. She was standing at the low stone ledge that let her look out over the beach. She hadn’t yet seen him as she was facing away from him, so he stood and took her in.

The lanterns were lit and bathed her in their soft, golden glow. She was wearing a red silk skirt that she had picked up on one of their market outings and an impossibly delicate black crop top he had never seen. The breeze gently ruffled her skirt around her and the fire in his blood, that never seemed to dampen down, raged back to life. The world opened up in front of him and at its heart was her. Always her.

“Hey,” he called softly.  
“Hey,” she called back turning around to walk back towards him.

He almost wished she had stayed facing away. The top she wore was cut low in front and he knew, based on the back that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath. It clung to her one moment and then shifted away as though attempting to remove itself from her skin. It took his breath away.

“That...is some top.”  
“You like it?”  
“You could say that.”  
“Come on, let’s eat. I opened the wine already.”  
“Any good?” he asked quietly as he joined her at the small dinner table beside the pool.  
“It is perfect. You know your wines.”  
“Come on,” he said as he took her hand, “let’s eat.”  
“I am starving. It’s like my metabolism is in overdrive.”  
“I know! You have inhaled the entire kitchen.”  
“...what?”  
“Oh...crap. I really...need to stop speaking.”  
“Yup!” she said while trying not to laugh. He was so unguarded with her now and while he sometimes really pause before speaking, she secretly loved that he was putting his feet so firmly in his mouth.

Their dinner was perfect. The way the candle light shimmered around Felicity, like it was dancing across her skin, leading him on a small, intimate journey along different pathways on her body. She was beautiful in any light, but tonight there was something different about her, like she was sparking with energy from somewhere deep within.

“So what do you think?” she asked, startling him out of his revere.  
“About what?” he blurted.  
“Oliver!” she laughed, “Where was your mind?”  
“I...I was looking at...well, at you,” he stammered.  
“And what do you see?” she asked quietly.  
Oliver took a deep breath, he could smell her soft perfume and the frangipani trees that surrounded their outdoor dining area, and said in his softest voice, “You.”

Felicity smiled and took another sip of her wine. “I was asking you what you thought about maybe going to Positano next. We both love the seaside and Italian food and wine…”  
“That sounds like paradise.”  
“You said that about here,” she gently chided.  
“I guess,” he said as he reached for her hand, “anywhere we are is paradise, so long as we are together.”  
“You are such a sap,” she smiled.  
“A happy sap.”  
“So Italy next?”  
“Isn’t Positano kind of...hilly?”  
“Yeah but I’ll live. I may have found the perfect little place for us to rent…”

Oliver smiled across the table at her as she finished her wine. Love wasn’t strong enough a word for how he felt in that moment. His entire body was alive, down to the subatomic level, when he was with her. She was the best part of his life.

“Come on,” she said getting up and reaching for him, “let’s go down and watch the sun set.”

Without a word, Oliver took her hand and got up. When she turned to lead him to the stairs, her top moved on her body just enough to reveal the soft swell of her breast and the delicate curve of her torso. For just the time it took his heart to beat, his mouth went dry, he stopped breathing and just stared at her in awe.

Looking back over her shoulder, Felicity smiled knowingly at him then tugged on his hand to get him moving.

 

**IV**

Felicity knew the effect her outfit had on Oliver. From the moment she put it on, she was aware of just how it would affect him. Her aim wasn’t to seduce him with the sexiness of the fabric or cut of the top, but rather she wanted to thank him for his kindness and thoughtfulness over the course of the last two days.

She had been nervous to ask for him to not initiate anything intimate with her, because she knew she would give in, but his response made her heart swell. Everyday was an adventure with him and she looked forward to every moment.

“The hotel staff here is amazing,” Oliver said in astonishment.  
“How so?”  
“We were up for dinner for what, two hours, and they replaced every blanket, the towels, new chairs and a brand new umbrella.”  
“Oliver, you grew up with a staff the size of the one employed here, why are you so surprised?”  
“I don’t know. No, I do. I loved Raisa like an aunt but the rest of the staff, I never really bothered with, they were furniture and I was a spoiled idiot. I didn’t respect them. But this staff, they work so hard for us and everyone here...I am just awed by them.”

“Oliver Queen, you never cease to amaze me,” she said softly, “but grab a blanket or two and let’s watch the sun go down.”

Chuckling, Oliver did as he was told and pulled her gently down between his legs so that she could lean back into him. The fabric of her top and skirt was so light and soft, it was like it wasn’t even there. Instinctively, he dipped his head and gently kissed her neck just below her jawline.

“Mmmmmmm...Oliver,” she sighed, “let’s just relax for a bit.”  
“Ok, but I am actually chilly,” he said as he wrapped a blanket around them.  
“Thank goodness we have all those extra blankets.”  
“They are so soft, too.”  
“Perfect for watching the sun go down.”

The sun in Bali didn’t just set, it plunged low in the sky and set the ocean on fire. The waves turned into lava, flowing gently over the cooling sand. It was simply the most amazing site she had ever seen. And when the stars came out in the pitch black sky, it was like the cosmos was dancing for them in an endless performance.

Oliver’s hands slowly traveling down her thighs brought her back to earth. Closing her eyes to the celestial show above her, Felicity relaxed into his chest. She could feel his breath on her neck and the steady beating of his heart as it reverberated through her body. It would be so easy to slide into the moment he was creating.

“Felicity?”he whispered into her ear.  
“Hmmmm?”  
“You aren’t wearing any underwear are you?”

Before she could stop herself, she burst out laughing and turned around so that she was facing him. Kneeling between his legs, she was only a few inches taller than him and able to take his face between her small hands. Lightly, she traced his cheeks and jawline with her thumbs.

“I thought you noticed before dinner and that was what got you so...stunned and wide eyed.”  
“Nope, that was just because of you,” he said quietly as his hands traveled down her body, “This outfit is not something you should ever wear in public.”  
“Why is that?” she asked in a breathless voice.

Oliver looked her in the eyes and said nothing. Felicity felt his answer in his hands, the change in his breathing, and the darkening of his eyes. Getting to her feet, Felicity pulled him up after her, never once breaking eye contact with him. She had every intention of suggesting a late night dip but knew they wouldn’t make it off the beach and into the water.

One button at a time, she undid his shirt. She loved his chest, the depth and breadth of it, the powerful way it would expand when he took deep breaths. She loved his scars, those ridges of wounded skin and tissue that criss crossed his torso and his tattoos. She had mapped them all with her fingertips, traced them with her tongue, and felt them rub and rasp against her skin.

She felt his hands on her back, searching for the way to remove her top, she let him fumble for a moment as she laid a kiss in the centre of his chest. Stepping back, she shifted her shoulders and the top slipped free and he was able to lift it over her head.

Oliver trailed his fingers down her arms, passing them tenderly over her breasts, down her torso before circling back up her spine. It felt like icy fire traveling over her skin. She shivered slightly and he took her into his arms, holding her tightly against him.

“We aren’t going to make it to the water are we?” he asked, his voice thick with desire.  
“No, I don’t think we are,” she answered as she gently reached between them and undid his pants.  
“Why, Ms. Smoak,” he fake drawled, “I do declare.”  
“Get these things off, Mr. Queen,” she growled as she playfully pushed him away.  
“You first.”

Smiling, she undid the a button hidden in the waistband and the skirt fell to her feet in a silky rush and laid down on the blanket, patiently waiting for him to join her. After almost 48 hours of non-sexual contact, Oliver was beside her in a flash.

Smiling up at him, Felicity pulled him down and gently, almost sweetly, kissed him. She felt his arms go around her, pulling her to him, cradling her against his powerful frame, as the kiss deepened into something messy and full of desire. She danced her tongue around his and felt his hand slip between her thighs.

He was so careful with her. So deliberate in his touch. His awareness of her body made her want him more than she ever had, including their first night together in Nanda Parbat. The way he stroked her back, sucked on her bottom lip and gently circled her sensitive clit with his fingers was pushing her into that mindless state where only they existed. When his fingers, already wet from the essence of her, found their way into her body, she gripped his shoulders and moaned from the most primal place within her.

“Oh...please...Oliver, that feels amazing,” she gasped.

He answered by lowering his head and gently sucking and biting her nipples, one at a time, teasing them to an exquisite,painful hardness, all the while maintaining the slow and steady thrusting of his fingers inside her. He had positioned his right leg between her legs in such a way that she couldn’t close hers and it increased the tension in her lower pelvis. She felt the familiar uncoiling of that ever present stream of fire that connected them to each other and to something far larger than either of them.

Carding her hands through his hair, she gently brought his head back up so that she could look into his eyes. He had full command of her body but she wanted, no, needed, him to see her when she finally crested the wave she was riding.

“Keep doing that, don’t stop…,” she gasped.  
“Are you close?”  
“Oh God, yes…” and with that she slipped over the edge and came undone. Her back arched before all of her went loose and she lost herself in her orgasm.

Before she could recover, Oliver moved so that he was on top of her. She could feel how hard he was, she could read the desire in his eyes, but knew that he would wait for her signal before doing anything else. She trusted him with every molecule in her body for that one simple act alone.

Reaching between their bodies, she grasped him firmly and guided him to her entrance. With a simple, gentle push, he glided into her, creating a delicious friction and tension in her body, one that she loved and had longed for these past two days. Slowly, Oliver began to move deep within her. He was holding her under her hips, raising them up to change how he entered her. She saw stars burst into life behind his head and couldn’t tell if they were real or a result of the spot inside her that his cock was gently stroking.

Felicity instinctively wrapped her legs around him, pulling him closer to her as they moved in time with the waves that lapped at the shore. Oliver buried his face in her neck and she could feel his breath and lips on her skin. She felt that stream of fire and energy come alive again in her. This time the released in her blood was a tsunami. She clawed at his back, trying to crawl into his skin, and through it all Oliver maintained his rhythm as he pushed her through one orgasm and immediately into the next.

“Oliver, I...I can’t…,” she gasped just as another wave of ecstasy washed over her and she retreated deep within herself and came again.  
“Oh God, Felicity,” he groaned into her neck, “you feel so good right now…”  
“Let me get on top,” she whispered, “Please, let me get on top.”

Without losing the connection between their bodies, Oliver turned over pulling her with him so that she was, indeed, on top.

“That...was impressive,” she grinned as she moved her hips in a gentle, circular pattern.  
“Well, you are tiny and light,” he smiled as he pulled her down for a kiss.  
“Perfect response,” she hummed against his lips.  
“Uh...whatever you are doing right now...don’t...don’t...stop.” he groaned.

Smiling, she raised herself up so that she could watch him. He laid underneath her, as she slowly moved him from one plateau of pleasure to another, and she was awed by the way he glowed in the moonlight, as if it was truly the Gods’ and Goddesses’ fallen light that he was bathed in.

She was so distracted by the way he looked that she failed to see his right hand slip between them. It was the pressure on her overstimulated clit that snapped her back to reality.

“What are doing?” she managed to choke out.  
“I love how it feels when you come with me,” he answered in that voice of his that was between a growl and a whisper.  
“I can feel how close you are…,” she whispered as she let her head fall back.

She loved the way his cock felt inside her right before he came. He would swell and throb when he was buried in her body. There were times when just the very hint that he was ready would send her into a tailspin but she deliberately kept her pacing even. His breath was getting shorter and he was now gripping her thighs with both hands as though she were the one thing keeping him anchored to the earth.

“God, I love you, Felicity,” he said as though he was offering his love to her like a sacrament.

In answer, she felt her body grip him in a throbbing, pulsing embrace, trying to push him to crest his own wave of pure bliss and release the uncoiling stream of fire she knew was coursing through him, too.

Oliver flipped them over so that once again he was on top of her. She could see he was holding himself back just enough to make the moment last. Pulling him closer, she shared his breath for just a moment before gently probing his lips with the tip of her tongue.

Wrapping her arms around him, she kissed him with all the passion and love that the universe had shown her was within her for him. With a gasp and primal groan, Oliver came with one last powerful thrust. She could feel the heat of him filling her and it triggered a shuddering, earthquake within her and she held him as hard and close as she could as she rode it out.

“I know why we took a couple of days to recover but…,” he mumbled into her neck.  
“That was...wow,” she agreed softly.  
“I know I weigh a lot, but I can’t move so you are just going to have to wait a minute.”  
“It’s ok, I can still breathe,” she laughed.  
“How are we going to make it back up those stairs?”  
“I have no idea but you are going to have to carry me if you stay on me much longer.”

Oliver’s laugh rumbled through her, rattling her still frenetically alive nerve endings. She shifted her hips just a tiny bit to get some breathing room and felt him twitch and slowly stiffen inside her.

“You have got to be kidding me.”  
“What? You moved your hips.”  
“So it is my fault?” she taunted as she moved her hips again.  
“Felicity….” he warned.  
“What? What are you going to do?” she whispered in his ear, “Make me come again?”  
“Why yes, I think I will,” as he began moving his hips in hard, deep, slow thrusts.  
“How can you be ready again so fast?” she gasped.  
“Honestly, I have no idea,” he laughed, low and deep in his chest, “I think it is a combination of you, Bali and Coyote.”  
“Oh my God,” she half laughed, half moaned, “you did not just say Coyote.”

Oliver laughed as he kissed her, gently sucking her tongue as he continued to thrust into her with a gentle power that pushed them both headlong into an erotic, timeless space. She could feel how quickly he was moving towards his release, so she squeezed her legs down until they were almost parallel with his. The increased pressure and tension in her lower pelvis sent shock waves through her as he continued his steady rhythm.

“Oh God,” he gasped, “always do that.”  
Laughing deep in her throat, Felicity scratched a zigzag pattern up his back and whispered, “Always do what you are doing…”

Oliver’s breathing was growing shorter, his hips moved faster and he rocketed her back to that quiet part of her mind where all she was aware of was the feeling of him and the absolute ecstasy her body felt as she shuddered and pulsed around him. He quickly followed her and sputtered hot and alive inside her with a deep groan that rolled out across the sea like thunder.

“How the hell am I supposed to walk after that?” he asked as he slowly rolled off and out of her.  
“I have no idea but you will be walking for two.”

The spent the next hour watching the sky and planning their next trip out to Italy. The freedom they had to just be and go wherever they wanted to was still so new that they approached the topic with a wariness that spoke more to their fear of losing each other than the ability to travel.

Felicity knew she would follow him wherever he wanted to go. He had earned the ability and right to decide for himself what would make him happy while he shed the layers of the past eight years. He was still figuring out who he was without the pressing need to save the world and she loved watching him unwrap his own existence.

Felicity absent-mindedly traced the ridge of muscle above his hip, she often did that when they laid in bed talking. Laying her head on his chest, she sought out his heart beat and allowed it to lull her into a meditative state where she could hear his voice but see into forever.

 

**V**

_Agung and Batur watched the pair as the glow of their love making slowly dissipated and flowed out like a mist into the air. Vishnu watched as well with a knowing smile on his face. They had found the Kundalini within them and grabbed hold of that river of fire that fueled them. They were learning to control its rising in their body and blood._

_The Woman was using it to see into her future with the Warrior. He was still discovering its healing power but had a firm understanding of the physical, regenerative powers that allowed him to recover faster. The Gods smiled at one another, knowing well the desire to find the warm embrace of a woman’s body._

_The Goddesses murmured in a low conversation, discussing the words they heard in the temple as the pair reclined and spoke of the dreams they shared. Before they left this land, there was one more thing that needed sending. One last, gentle push that should unite them beyond the physical and into the realm they had experienced with Danu’s help._

_From far away, they watched the pair bathe one another in the falling water in their home. The Goddesses approved of how the Warrior knelt with reverence in front of her and gently soaped her between her legs and the rest of her body, washing her clean while laying claim to her at the same time._

_The Gods smiled as the Woman used her small hands to cleanse his body but imprint her heart in the waves of water that flowed down his body. He was covered in a roadmap of agony but her touch smoothed the memories away, leaving him glowing and alive._

_Off in the distance, a coyote howled signalling their time to go._


	10. Interlude Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is it. The last chapter of Oliver and Felicity in Bali.  
> This chapter is full of humour, sex, and one very specific conversation that wraps together a couple of plot ideas but leave a few open that I will be exploring in Ghost of Jupiter Part Three.
> 
> I love this chapter. It is feeling more and more like them. Easier, freer, more connected.
> 
> I hope you have all enjoyed reading it and feel moved enough to leave a comment :)

**Interlude Part Two**

_The Earth rumbled alive_   
_Pushing seething life_   
_Up through her skin._

I

The next few days went far too quickly for Felicity. She was beginning to really enjoy the heat and humidity, despite Oliver’s very vocal displeasure with it after his attempts at going for runs in the late morning.

She had laughed at him as he came in the morning following their night on the beach. He looked like ten miles of bad road, which for him was quite the feat, and after his shower had collapsed back on the bed. Calling weakly for her to come help him.

Shaking her head, she grabbed a glass of freshly made juice and took it into him. He was pretending but she knew that it was hotter outside than any place on earth had a right to be and that he most likely needed to nutrients.

“Here you go, you big baby,” she laughed.  
“What? It takes a lot of work to maintain this physique. I don’t want you to get bored if I get soft around the edges.”  
“Oliver,” she said in mock-seriousness as she ran her hand over his chest and abdomen, “if there is one thing you will never be, it is soft around the edges.”  
“Careful where you wander with those things,” he said in a low voice.  
“Why would I want to do that?”  
“I don’t think I have any energy left in my body to do what I want to do to you right now.”

Felicity got up from the bed, trying so hard not laugh, and made her way to the small closet beside the bathroom to find him a pair of pants. They were getting used to controlling the intensity of their desire for each other even when the timing was right. She had a surprise for him later that night but first they needed to figure out their travel itinerary for the next two legs of their journey.

“I think you need to put these on and take me out for lunch.”  
“I just want to stay right here.”  
“Naked, damp and alone?”  
“Yes. Wait...alone?”  
“Yup because I am going out for lunch.”  
“Goddamnit, Smoak.”  
“Come on,” she cajoled, “We can get some more of those strawberries I love so much…”  
“I need more incentive than that.”  
“I’ll give you a massage later tonight.”  
“With that coconut oil you found at the market?”  
“Yes.”  
“Before or after dinner?”  
“After.”  
“...ok. Now gimme my pants.”

While Oliver was getting dressed and ready to head out into the suffocating heat of the day, Felicity quickly emailed the front desk to arrange for the surprise for after dinner. She hadn’t been sure if they could actually meet her request but so far things looked like they were good to go. Oliver thought of so many little things to surprise her with that this was an opportunity for her to repay his thoughtfulness.

“Come on, Oliver! If we hurry we can get to that marketplace out by Bubunan!”  
“I’m coming! Just trying to find my shoes.”  
“You only have two pairs. How hard can it be?”  
“Felicity,” he sighed in exasperation, “I am not obsessive like you when it comes to putting them by the door.”  
“Well, if you were, you would know where to find them,” she grumbled.  
“Are we about to have our first fight? Over shoe placement?”  
“I wouldn’t call it a fight, it is me being right and you being wrong. I bet they are under that ungodly huge pile of towels beside the bed.”  
“Oh wow, I think we need to have a little conversation in the car about right and wrong and no, they are not under the pile of towels.”  
“Did you look?”  
“If you keep distracting me, I won’t be able to concentrate on finding my shoes.”  
“Fine,” she said, biting back any further retorts.  
“Ah ha!” he exclaimed.

Oliver came out of the bedroom and presented his feet, shoes on, to her. Felicity narrowed her eyes at him as he dramatically took large steps to show her just on his shoes were. She could tell that he was enjoying himself immensely.

“Are you quite finished?” she asked.  
“Why yes, I do think I am,” he said in a self-satisfied voice.  
“They were under the towels you left beside the bed, weren’t they?”  
“Get in the car, Smoak.”

Shaking her head, she made her way out to the car. She was hoping to find a cafe or wifi hotspot on the way. She had a few things to take care of and there was an email from Palmer Tech that needed reading.

But the day was humid and hot and the drive around the coast from their resort to the market they liked was smooth and cool when the air conditioning kicked in. She watched the jungle and ocean go by as Oliver drove with confidence and speed on the somewhat dubious highway. There weren’t many things he couldn’t do and she loved that he did all the driving. It freed her mind to think of things back home, the team, her mother. One day they needed to talk about Starling City and all the people they left behind but not today or anytime soon. They needed time to just enjoy what was happening, where they were and what they were forging together.

The market was bustling by the time they got to it. It was alive with sound and with the rich smells coming from outdoor grills and pots over small wood fires. Felicity pulled Oliver into the rows of booths and together they spent the hot afternoon buying fruit, nasi Bali or mixed rice in banana leaves, and celeng guling or spit roasted pig with chili, tumeric, garlic and ginger. Oliver was planning something delicious and she could hardly wait for dinner.

While Oliver was debating with an old woman over the price of coconuts, she quickly bought a bright, deep turquoise blue dress. It was the colour of the ocean at midday and she knew it would fit perfectly. It folded easily into her bag. If he could surprise her with food, she could surprise him with a beautiful blue silk dress.

“Felicity!” he called out, “Come here for a second!”  
“What’s up?”  
“Mango or watermelon?”  
“For what?”  
“Dessert.”  
“Oh, mango. Definitely mango.”  
“Perfect,” he said as he paid the vendor, “Ready to go home?”

Smiling up at him, Felicity took in the openness in his face, the gentle way he looked at her and the clear, cerulean blue of his eyes and felt her heart swell in her chest. He was slowly becoming a new person right in front of her. Someone who could pull her soul apart with his fingertips and burn her heart with his lips. He was part of her now and nothing in this world could change that.

“I’m ready,” she said.

And off they went, out of the sun and back to their villa.

 

II

“So the villa I want to rent in Positano won’t be ready for 3 weeks. How about we stop over in Thailand for 10 days or so?” Felicity asked him over dinner.  
“Thailand? Won’t it be crazy hot like here?”  
“You are such a baby when it comes to heat,” she laughed.  
“I like not feeling like I am breathing hot, wet air!”  
“Thailand won’t be as hot and we can spend time on a smaller island away from civilization.”  
“I’ll think about it.”

Felicity rolled her eyes in mock exasperation and finished her mango sorbet. Oliver was creating masterpieces in their small kitchen and she was reaping the rewards and hopefully not expanding waistline.

“I think for a few days we will be fine,” she said around a mouthful of delicious sorbet.  
“I thought you said ten days.”  
“Oliver, it will only feel like a few days.”  
“Not if it is a thousand degrees.”  
“Oh my God, Oliver!” she laughed.

With a frown that threatened to not be a frown, Oliver cleaned up the dining table and started to clean the kitchen from her perch on the living room couch. Felicity watched him with a smile on her face. He was happy, she could read it in his body, his face, his calmer nights in deep sleep.

“Hey, have you looked up what those symbols mean? The ones from our dream?” he asked.  
“No, I haven’t! Let me do that now. Where is your drawing?”  
“Let me grab it. I drew it as best I could,” he said as he wiped his hands dry.  
“Can you grab mine?” she called after him, “I left it beside yours!”

Oliver brought them both and planted himself beside her. He was like a little kid, she thought, eager to please her regardless of the absurdity of the request. She was sometimes humbled by the faith and trust he had in her. It was a gift she took seriously in protecting.

“Ok, before the wifi goes out on us, let’s see what we got here.”  
“Do you even know where to begin?” he asked.  
“Well, I was thinking this all related to the Kundalini, at least I think it does, so I think the symbols relate back to that. I thought I’d Google Kundalini symbols, to be honest,” she said somewhat sheepishly.  
“That’s it?” he exclaimed, “Just use Google not some ancient Hindu text?”  
“Oliver, I would have no idea where to look in or read one of those.”  
“You’d figure it out,” he said gently as he wrapped his arm around her, “You are the smartest person I’ve ever known.”  
“Flattery will get you everywhere, Mr. Queen.”

Oliver could only laugh at her as she searched using the resort’s spotty wifi. She was trying to not use her skills to hack into the satellite system overhead but her patience was wearing thin.

“Found them!” she exclaimed.  
“So? Spill it!”  
“Ok, mine is a the serpent of fire...so basically a symbol of the kundalini itself. Wow…,” she breathed.  
“That is pretty amazing,” he said quietly, “Now what about mine?”

It took Felicity a few minutes to find Oliver’s symbol. It was buried in a page that took her forever to dig down to but when she did, she looked at him and smiled. It made perfect sense.

“Your’s,” she said quietly as she reached for his hand, “is the symbol for the opening of the heart chakra in the kundalini system. It’s the root chakra.”  
“That...makes so much sense.”  
“It is beautiful, Oliver,” she smiled, “and true. Your heart is opening up.”

Oliver leaned over and kissed her. Slowly and deeply. She hummed into the kiss and felt his body vibrate along with her. With a gentle push to his chest, she made him stop.

“Don’t worry, this is our last night here,” she chuckled softly, “but it is still light out and we have stuff to do.”  
“Yeah, I know,” he sighed, “Like I said before, this place is making my blood run hot.”  
“I think that is all the running in 1000 degrees.”  
“This heat is insane. It cannot be natural.”  
“We should go to Iceland after Positano,” she said quietly, “We can bundle up and sleep under piles of duvets.”  
“Naked.”  
“Well, of course,” she laughed.  
“We can cool our blood down,” he suggested.  
“Oliver, I think we are forever going to have to manage this,” she said with some resignation.  
“Is that a bad thing?”  
“No, not at all. Oliver, I more than love you, you know that,” she said quickly, “We just have to manage that intensity so it doesn’t burn itself out.”  
“Felicity, I could be in a coma and still want to have sex with you.”  
“Oliver…,” she tried to speak but started to laugh and couldn’t stop.  
“It’s not that funny, Felicity.”  
“Y-y-yes, it is!”  
“Careful or this might turn into ‘No Sex For Felicity’ night.”  
“As if!”

Felicity got up and pulled Oliver to his feet. It was time to get down to the beach before she exhausted herself with laughing at him. She knew how much Oliver loved her, her body and the physical side of their relationship so far. She did as well. She had dreamed about it for years before they took that final step towards each other in Nanda Parbat.

Slipping her arm around his waist, she gently pulled him towards the french doors. “Come on, let’s go down to the beach and watch the sun set.”  
“Ok, the temperature should be reasonable.”  
“800 degrees?”  
“More like 760.”

Felicity laughed at his obvious discomfort but knew the surprise would be worth it.

 

III

Oliver was content to spend a few hours on the beach with Felicity. Just being close to her was enough most days, if he were to be completely honest with himself. Every single minute with her helped him remove a layer of his past. He knew he still had so much to atone for, but knowing she would be there with him made the weight of his guilt lessen. He felt lighter in spirit through the gift of her love.

“Ok,” he said when they were halfway down the stone stairs to their small oasis, “if it gets too chilly we will have to come back up because I don’t think there will be any...holy shit, Felicity…”

He stopped short and stared. Then he looked at her and then back at the beach again. She had worked some kind of magic and had the resort set up what looked like an outdoor bedroom on the beach.

Under a canvas canopy was a plush mattress covered in pillows and two woven blankets. Beside the bed, on a woven mat, was a covered dish of strawberries, two champagne flutes and a bottle of what was most likely very good champagne. Small battery operated candles surrounded the structure as well. She had thought of everything.

“Come on,” she said quietly, “the sun will set without us.”  
“You are amazing.”  
“It’s a thank you gift.”  
“For what?” he asked with genuine confusion.  
“For all the meals, all the thoughtfulness, just because.”  
“I don’t need a thank you for that.”  
“I say you do.”

Smiling, Oliver picked her up and carried her to the structure. She was so light in his arms, he sometimes just did this for fun knowing it exasperated her. Especially when he did it when she could quite easily walk on her own. She was fiercely independent about certain things but he loved to tease her knowing all the ways he could make it up to her.

This time, she didn’t pretend to be mad or admonish him. Instead, she laid her head on his shoulder and snuggled into him. With her head under his chin, Oliver felt a tightening in his chest and struggled to not let the tears fall that blurred his vision. He wasn’t sure he would ever be able to adequately express how she made him feel. He held her closer to him for just a moment before putting her down.

“This bed is amazing,” she exclaimed as she laid down on it.  
“It is pretty soft,” he agreed.  
“Strawberries first?”  
“I may be obsessed with the tub in our master bath but you are ridiculous when it comes to the strawberries.”  
“What? There is a total difference between fruit and bathroom appliances.”  
“Strawberries...wait aren’t they a-”  
“If you finish that question, you are sleeping by the pool.”  
“...absolutely delicious?”  
“You are ridiculous,” she laughed.

Oliver went around the structure and turned on all the candles. The sun was starting to slowly push down past the curve of the earth and darkness was slowly gathering around them. The birds were returning to their nests, their songs ending for the day, and the air was suddenly laden with the heavy perfumes of flowers finally free of the humid jungle air.

The night was beginning and so far it was perfect. Oliver brushed the sand off of his feet and laid down next to her on their makeshift bed.

“Oliver?” she asked quietly.  
“Hmmmm?”  
“Do you think we are really...soul mates?”  
“Depends.”  
“On what?”  
“What you actually believe in.”

Turning over to face him, Felicity gave him a quizzical look. “What do you mean?”  
“Well,” he said as he lightly traced the shape of her face with his fingertips, “it depends on how you view time and the possible existence of Gods and Goddesses.”  
“Explain yourself, Professor Queen.”  
“I am not an astrophysicist but time is relative, right? And time is flexible and dependent on our interpretation of it, so it is possible for us to exist in different sections of it all across time and space because it is endless and stretches out in all directions and dimensions, so it is entirely possible that we have found each other in it over and over.”

Felicity sat up and looked at him. Her blue eyes seemed to be drilling through him and it was beginning to make him uncomfortable.

“Oliver Queen, when you are done with your explanation I am going to attack you. So you can keep your clothes on or start taking them off now to save time.”

Oliver laughed in relief.

“I thought you were going to make fun of me,’ he said somewhat ashamedly.  
“Never. Oliver...keep explaining.”  
“About the Gods and Goddesses part?” he asked as he took off his shirt.  
“Yes. That has me confused,” she said as she removed her skirt.  
“Well, it is this place that got me thinking about the existence of something older, larger than the cosmos. I sometimes feel like we have tapped into something incredibly ancient. Older than old. Maybe as old as time,” he continued while removing his pants.  
“So the Gods and Goddesses of Bali specifically or…?” Felicity asked as she took off her top.  
“Yes and no,” he continued, “the deities here got me to think about the limitlessness of time and space and our understanding of it.”  
“And what do you think?” she asked as she removed her underwear and laid back down next to him.  
“Well, I thought about Coyote and the man I saw under the tree. I thought about Manaba and the story she told us about what she saw as our creation and that maybe we aren’t the stars themselves but an extension of the story,” he explained as he covered them both with one of the woven blankets.

“So, we aren’t the stars but an aspect of the story?” she asked as she slowly traced his Bratva tattoo.  
“Yeah, I think Manaba saw the story reflected in us. Coyote sees something else. A kindred spirit maybe,” her touch was making it hard for him to concentrate and his voice waivered just a tiny bit.  
“What about here?” she asked as she leaned in and gently kissed the black ink above his heart.  
“We tapped into the divine,” he whispered as he ran his fingers through her hair. He could feel his body responding to her touch and was struggling to keep his breathing slow and even.  
“It fuels us now. Before it was consuming us,” she whispered back as she ran her hands over his chest. She paused at every seam, every ridge of muscle or bullet wound as though trying to smooth them over and wipe his skin clean.  
“Let’s finish watching the sunset,” he whispered.  
“It’s already set,” she chuckled as her hand dipped lower down his body.

Oliver looked out across the ocean and watched the last of the sun’s golden glow drain away. The sky slowly revealed her past with swaths of stars sharing their ancient light. There were stars that flashed red and blue light, there were small smudges almost too faint to see that contained billions of stars long since dead. He felt humbled and thankful and so full of gratitude for the woman in his arms. He often told her, in those sweet moments when she clung to him in ecstasy, that he fell for her the moment he walked into her cube and spent the last four years simply awed by her but that he had risen in love with her.

“Well, I guess it’s time for you to attack me,” he smiled as he laid back onto the bed.  
“Don’t make this weird, Oliver.”  
“It was your idea for us to get naked!”  
“I’m just sayin-”

Oliver pulled her into a long kiss. One that thrummed with so much love and desire, they were both left breathless by it.

“Has the moon risen?” she asked with her lips against the pulse point on his neck.  
“Mmmmmhmmm,” he hummed.  
“I am going to miss this beach.”  
“Me, too, we should come back when it isn’t so hot” he managed to say as she gently pushed herself up as she straddled him and slowly ground her hips against him in time to the waves lapping at the shore just a few yards beyond their golden circle of light.

“I love it when our foreplay is just us talking,” she smiled down at him.  
“I never really need it, to be honest,” he said quietly while he ran his hands up her arms and down her back, “just you like this is more than enough.”  
“Well,” she chuckled as she continued to rub up and down his hard length, “I do need more from time to time but talking to me about astrophysics also works.”  
“I don’t really know much more than that,” he managed to say as his breath grew shorter and shorter. She was silky soft and so wet and ready for him that he was having trouble concentrating on anything other than the feel of her against his skin.  
“I don’t care. You could repeat that to me over and over and I wouldn’t care.”

Oliver pulled her down into a searing kiss. The moment he felt her tongue touch his, he reached around behind her and guided himself into her warm, welcoming body. She moaned into him and began slow, circular movements with her hips that drew him all the way inside her.

Felicity broke off the kiss to catch her breath.

“Oh God Oliver...just like that…”  
“Felicity...I...oh God…,” he moaned into her neck. He was holding onto her for dear life as she her movements became faster and harder.  
“Oh...God, don’t stop...I love you…,” she gasped.

Oliver felt her clench down around him and knew she was close. Instead of matching her thrusts, he slowed himself down, forcing her to slow with him. Taking her face between his large hands, he gently ran his thumbs across her cheeks, her lips and jaw. She spent so much time mapping his body with her fingertips while he spent the same time memorizing her face.

Felicity hooked her feet over his thighs and leaned forward, increasing the tension in both their lower bodies and pushed down, ground down against him. That vein of fire that they had unknowingly tapped into when they set foot on this particular island simmered and seethed through them and it was all Oliver could do to not dive in and surrender to it.

“Mmmmmm, always do this,” he breathed.  
“It is almost too much,” she gasped, “I don’t know how much longer I can do this…”  
“Just...think...about the stars…,” he murmured as he pulled her into a kiss.

Oliver tasted the ancient fire on her tongue and gave in. Holding her to him, he met her thrust for thrust until he felt her body start to tremble. He knew what that meant and fought to stay with her.

He felt that sinuous, delicious pressure uncoiling at the base of his spine and knew he was close to his own release but he was beyond caring. All that mattered was her.

“Don’t stop, Oliver,” she whispered, “please...don’t stop.”

So he continued to move deep inside her, as his hands roamed her body her breath blew hot and alive across his skin, and with a soft but insistent pulsing, she slowly came undone. She collapsed against him and was lost in the fiery waves that continued to pound through them both.

“Now Oliver...don’t...oh God don’t hold back,” she whispered against his lips before claiming him once again and pushing, pushing, pushing him with her body and tongue to releasing the coiled pressure within him.

With a series of hard, powerful thrusts Oliver felt himself throbbing deep within her as her body clenched around him. Arching his back off of the mattress and with one last push inside her, he felt the uncoiling complete itself and he came, hot, alive, and with a thunderous, primal cry that woke up the birds and raced them to the heavens.

“My God, Felicity…,” he gasped, “I mean…”  
“I know,” she chuckled.  
“I think we have the hang of it now.”  
“Sex?”  
“No,” he laughed, “the Kundalini. I think I get it now.”  
“What is it for you?”  
“It’s about how I feel when I am inside you, about how it feels to have you wrapped around me physically and emotionally. When I connect to you that way, I don’t let it overwhelm me, I just...accept it as part of us.”  
“I love you, Oliver.”  
“What does it mean to you?”  
“It’s like my entire body vibrates with energy and it is you that keeps me tethered to this place. As soon as you touch me,” she said with a tone of reverence, “You are a gift, Oliver and sometimes I feel like maybe all the answers I am looking for are right here, in you, in us.”  
“I love you, Felicity,” he smiled, “but you need to get off me. So I can breathe.”  
“But I’m comfortable!” she protested while wrapping herself around him.

Oliver laughed and flipped them over so that he was on top. Just to give her a taste of her own medicine, he eased his full weight down onto her.

“Eeep!” she gasped, “Ok! I’m sorry!”  
“See? It doesn’t feel good does it?” he laughed as he eased off and out of her.  
“Oh my God, you are heavy. Like, is that ALL muscle or is part of that your skeleton? Are you made of adamantium?”

Oliver chuckled to himself as he gently used one of the napkins to clean them both up. She was stronger than she looked but not once had she been able to buck him off of her. She had tried, but when he wanted to he could be an immovable object.

“It’s getting late,” Felicity said with a tinge of sadness.  
“I am going to miss this place,” he sighed.  
“Even with the unrelenting heat?””  
“There’s air conditioning in the villa. I could get used to it.”  
“And don’t forget the tub.”  
“Oooh man,” he groaned, “I love that tub!”

Laughing, Felicity got up and wrapped one of the blankets around her.  
“You grab the champagne and glasses and I’ll carry our clothes and strawberries upstairs,” she said.  
“Why?”  
“So we can have a bath.”  
“For real?”  
“Yup.”

They made record time up the stairs and into the villa. Felicity poured the champagne while Oliver got the bath ready. He watched her moving back and forth between the living room and their bedroom. She was slowly gathering up all of her belongings into one place so she could pack for their trip to Thailand. She wanted to travel light, relatively speaking, and was silently debating what to send to Italy and what to keep.

“Hey,” he called softly from the bathroom doorway, “Come here.”  
“Is it ready?”  
“It is.”  
“Hey! I forgot to give you that massage!”  
“How about I cash that ticket in Thailand?”  
“Deal.”

The next half an hour was one of pure bliss. The tub was temperature controlled and the jets, set on low, kept a steady, rolling current. After half a bottle of champagne and the majority of locally grown strawberries, they let the current buffet them against each other and soon followed its rhythm.

Stumbling out of the tub, they fell into bed and a dreamless sleep until morning.

 

IV

Felicity spent the morning packing and repacking. She couldn’t decide just what to bring but she knew her tablet was number one. Oliver wasn’t aware of it just yet but she was in contact with Thea and Laurel back in Starling. When the news of Ray’s death arrived shortly after they left the city, she had opted to keep in touch with the team. Not to help but to make sure they were ok.

Oliver occasionally talked to Thea but not about their once shared nighttime activities. Felicity still felt like the team needed her and it was hard to keep that part of her from wanting to continue helping. The wifi in Bali made it difficult but Thailand should be a breeze.

“Oliver,” she called, “I think I am good to go.”  
“For real this time?”  
“Listen, just because you only have a carry on…”  
“I don’t need much,” he said with a small shrug, “I have you, some underwear, a couple pairs of shoes and a tooth brush. What else do I need?”  
“Humility?”  
“Oh,” he chortled, “Pot to kettle…”  
“Let’s just get on the road before I re-organize,” she laughed.  
“Ok, ok, I just have one thing left to do. I’ll be right there,” he said as he headed into the bedroom.

Curious, Felicity peaked in after him to see what he was doing. His bag was already in the car and he had gone over and through every possible drawer and surface to make sure they weren’t leaving anything behind.

She heard the sound of a camera and knew exactly what he was doing. He was taking pictures of the tub. She clapped her hands over her mouth and ducked back into the living room.

“Ok,” he said, “Ready to go! You good?”  
“Oliver?” she asked as she tried to keep a straight face.  
“What’s up?” he responded.  
“Did...did you just take photos of the tub?”  
“Why so you ask?” he asked as he narrowed his eyes at her.

Unable to keep it in any longer, Felicity burst out laughing, “Why?”  
“You’ve been in it! I want one state side!”  
“What do you mean?”  
“When we get back to the states. To live. Together.”  
“Wait, what?” she asked suddenly serious.  
“I just thought...I mean, it just seems natural to do that unless you don’t want to.”

In answer, Felicity basically launched herself into his arms. Wrapping herself around him, Felicity whispered into his ear, “I want to and I want the tub.”  
“Felicity,” he growled, “we have to go or we won’t make our flight.”

Giving him a quick kiss, she slipped out of his arms and headed for the door. Bali was a place of such precious joy to her. She was already planning their return trip as they drove back to the airport and onto the next leg of their journey.

 

V

_The land rumbled as their plane took off as a kind of farewell. Batur watched from a distance and smiled after them. She would miss the Woman and her laugh. She was a smart one, that one. She didn’t have it all figured out, but she was always ready to face a challenge and meet it with joy. But never once at the expense of her heart or identity._

_She would always be the Warrior’s equal and he would always be hers. It took the Kundalini surging through them, igniting their bodies and souls, for them to realize that they were connected to the Universe through each other. The Warrior had tasted eternity on the Woman’s lips and had felt the power of the cosmos in her touch._

_The Woman, now she was connected to the mythic world the Gods and Goddesses found themselves moving in and out of. She would continue to channel the Kundalini but it would never be as powerful as it was here on this island. Where they were going to next held its own power but the place after that...well, the Gods and Goddesses that slept beyond the veil there were already dreaming of her. They would rumble to life and make themselves known._

_Vishnu beckoned to her from beyond Danu’s temple. He was smiling at the plane as it roared into the sky. He had forged a bond with the Warrior. A gentle one that would continue for as long as he lived in this life. He had also managed to get that mangy Coyote to stop pestering him by sharing his evening meals._

_The connection Coyote has to the Warrior ran deep and was older than even the waters that flowed up from the ground in Danu’s temple. Batur was careful with Coyote. The wildness of her spirit was infectious and untameable. The Warrior would have his hands full soon enough, she thought._

_Until then, there were always new travelers to touch and help. Such was the way of the island. Lovers sought the heat of Bali, but often found the fire of the Goddess._


End file.
